Chapter 4
Madara woke up early in the morning with a smile. They had no middle-of-the-night wanderings, and the submissive was still peacefully asleep in his arms. Watching Tobirama sleep was rather nice, his face was relaxed, making him look less on edge or angry. They were making progress. He was still twitchy and flinching when they got too close, but he seemed to start relaxing. He was hugging the wolf Madara gave him, and the dom took it as a win.
When Tobirama finally woke up, he instantly looked mad, his expression mimicking the one of the wolf in his embrace. “Already in such a sour mood.” Madara fondly laughed at Tobirama’s expression, patting the white hair. “Come on, gimme a smile, precious.” He didn’t get an answer, but that was fine, he would not force Tobirama, unless it was necessary to keep him alive, like affection and eating. “Alright…” He sat up, lifting the albino with him in the process, “Let's have breakfast.” He patted the white locks at the back of Tobirama's head, laughing at the annoyed huff Tobirama made.
“What are you doing?” The submissive's tone was annoyed as he looked at him from the doorway of Madara’s study.
“I'm working.” He looked up with a cheesy smile. “ What? Are you jealous that I pay more attention to the paperwork than you, precious?”
“Not at all.” He said in a monotone voice.
“What then?” Madara was still smiling at the albino, patiently waiting for an answer.
“Why are you here instead of the council building?” He looked around.
The Uchiha were different from Senju in that they had a building specifically built for council meetings, the clan archives and the clan head's official study. The Senju, on the other hand, had a specific set of rooms in the clan head's home delegated to such matters. A space closed off to children and submissives. Even the people who cleaned the rooms were either doms or switches.
“Since Izuna and Hikaku are on a mission, it's my full-time responsibility to look after you.” The dominant replied. He also enjoyed being at home for a change.
“I'm not a child!”
“No, but you are a terribly mistreated submissive…” He stood up from his chair, walking towards the submissive with determination in his eyes. he saw the albino back away from the doorway, moving into the wall. He was shaking. “Don't think I can't see you flinch whenever anyone is close to you.” He leaned on the wall, looking into the submissive's eyes. “Or how you keep looking behind you when your back is not covered by a wall.” He continued, the color leaving Tobirama’s face was an indication that he was right.
“Because I'm a weak bitch.” The submissive cried out, his voice trembling.
Madara huffed and collected the Submissive in his arms, dragging him into a crushing embrace.
“Don't use that word, please. I know it’s ok in your birth clan to demean submissive, but not here.” He gently patted the trembling back. “You are not weak, I've seen you fight, Precious. You are very graceful and deadly. You were Izuna’s equal on the battlefield.” He smiled down at the man. “You were… I have no words to describe it, but when I watched you fight but you were…” His smile when the pale man’s breath hitched. “Breathtaking.”
Tobirama didn’t say a thing for a long time. Just looked down at the floor.
“What can I do around here then?”
“What do you mean?” He was confused.
“What can I do around here?” Tobirama inquired again.
“ Nothing…”
“No!” Tobirama screamed, shaking his head. “If you won't let me go home, then at least give me something to do! I need to stop being useless!” Pushing Madara away in the struggle, he fell on the floor. “I…I need to be…”
Madara quickly kneeled to be on Tobirama’s eye level. “Tobirama, you need to relax-”
“N-No, I need to be useful, I need…” Tears started to gather in his eyes. “I need…”
“TOBIRAMA!” Madara yelled in surprise, scaring the submissive into a trembling mess on the ground. Madara quickly regretted his volume, it was good when commanding his clan, not with a distressed submissive. “ I'm sorry, precious, I didn't mean to scare you, I was worried…” He gathered the albino into a hug, getting a hiccup at his action. Tobirama, as if on instinct, hugged him back. “ Tobirama, you don't need to be useful, just you, just you being you is all that's needed…”
“I, but…Hashirama liked me when…”
“Hush, this is not about him…” Madara patted the albino’s back. Thinking about what to say next, to make Tobirama a little calmer. He didn't know much about the man outside of combat. “Precious, what do you like to do when you aren't working…”
“Tinkering with seals, but Hashirama doesn't like it when I do that because it's useless and boring, and I'm not helping him.”
Madara hummed as Tobirama explained. He didn't like how Hashirama treated Tobirama, saying such mean things about the man's hobbies when Madara knew the man didn't do anything around the office. Their spies often complained about not finding any useful information with him. “Do you want to know what I like to do in my spare time?” Tobirama hesitantly nodded.
“I like hunting with my pet hawk…would you like to meet them?” He tried to cheer Tobirama up, and it worked.
Tobirama’s eyes shone. “Yes-” then he looked away “ no, I'll only bother you…”
“ Tobirama, you're not bothering me, and I offered, of course, we can see them if you'd like!” He smiled when the submissive looked up at him with hope shining in his eyes. “ Good, would you like to cuddle a little bit before we go to the aviary?” The albino shakily nodded. So they stayed like that, Madara deciding he worked enough for the day anyway. He needs to spend time with Tobirama. And introduce him to his hawks.
Tobirama wiggled out of Madara’s iron grip and escaped to the bathroom. Even after the bed was nearly empty due to Izuna and Hikaku's absence, the dom insisted on hugging him. Every night, Tobirama asked if he could sleep in his own bed. Madara said no, even when he promised him he wouldn't escape. He reluctantly lay down on the big bed, as far away as he could from the Uchiha, just for the man to drag him into a bear hug. Looking around Madara’s personal bathroom, he tried his luck with the window again and to his delight, it was open. He called upon his summons, and the magpies and one small black bird appeared.
“ Wock! Where are you? This is not the Senju clan house! Wock!” The magpie, Kuromi, chipped.
“No, I…I'm in the Uchiha compound…” He tried to answer evenly. But the magpie scanned him and noticed the collar.
“Wock-a-wock! Do you need help escaping?” Kuromi whisper screamed, she was worried. She was a hothead, and the fact that he had a Uchiwa hanging from his collar made her blood boil.
“No. Please don't tell anything to Hashirama …I…I need you and Shinya to keep watch on the Senju compound…from afar.”
“Tobi…”
There was a knock on the bathroom door. “Tobirama, I know you're in there. Is everything OK…” Madara's sleep-filled voice scared him.
“Y-Yes!”
He looked back at the bird, “I'll be alright, just do this for me, OK?” The bird reluctantly nodded and flew away.
Another knock. “Come back to bed…” Tobirama closed the windows and opened the door. Madara engulfed him in a hug and carried him to bed. First, he gently lays down Tobirama, fetching the stuffed wolf, and then he gets on the bed and immediately catches him and the wolf in a hug. Drifting slowly to sleep.
“Wake up…I have to start the day!” He ruffled the white lock. Madara started to feel very warmly towards Tobirama. He found the submissive rather cute, especially when he just woke up. The younger one tried to push him away, but Madara was stronger and larger. He cupped one pale cheek and started rubbing circles on it with his thumb. “Come on, Precious. Wake up, you don't want me to be late.”
“Leave me alone…”
“Not right now, you’ll have all the alone time you oh so want until lunch.” He teased a little, making the other man grumble. Deep down, Madara wasn't eager to leave the submissive alone, in the last 2 weeks, he had grown quite fond of him. Even if Tobirama fought him all the time, when Madara hugged him, he wanted him close. The heart wants what the heart wants, he reasoned.
“Could you eat the whole portion for me?” Madara smiled as he handed him a nice fluffy pancake with blueberries. Tobirama frowned. “You need to eat more than the bare minimum…”
“Good boy, you did so well.” Madara praised him, which made Tobirama pur against his will. He needs to get a grip.
“I have to go to work, Precious. I'll be back at lunch, be good for me while I'm gone.”
Tobirama nodded, but he had other ideas, he had no plans on staying here.
And as soon as Madara left, he started to devise an escape plan and perhaps try to rid himself of the collar in the process. As he was in the middle of planning, he heard a familiar bird sound, his summons came back with news already. He smiled and went to the kitchen to find something for the birds to eat.
“They did what?” He wasn't sure he heard that right. He didn't want to be true.
“Pjur, not a trace of your things in that room, pjur! But I saw pieces of your armor in the dump…the fur pelt was also shredded into pieces…” Shinya said with sadness in his voice, he nuzzled closer to Tobirama. The fur pelt was a gift from his late mother, he cherished it with all his heart. “Pjur, the room looked more like an office set up, I'm sorry. Pjur…they destroyed everything of yours…”
“ That sweet owl family confirmed, Hashirama burned all your scrolls, wock!” Kuromi was seething, before she opened one of her wings and laughed in it. “But I dropped a rotting plum on Hashirama’s head, you should see his face as he screamed!”
“Pjur, I'm sorry, Tobira, is there anything we can do?” Shinya brushed his face against Tobirama’s cheek. “How can we cheer you up, Tobira?”
“ Wock, if it helps, the owl family greets you. When their chicks are old enough, they'll visit you here,wock!”
“It's ok, you did well…thank you…” He numbly said, feeding the birds a few sunflower seeds before they disappeared.
There was no home for him anymore. All his hard work was gone, burned. His blueprints for the village Hashirama dreamed about, gone. The thing that should have redeemed him in his brother's eyes was burned by the very person it was for. Just another faint memory of a wish he worked for.
Tobirama was happy he was alone in the house so his pitiful sobs couldn't be heard. He had no reason to live anymore. Everything was gone.
“Tobirama!” Madara happily called for the submissive. He couldn't wait to get home to see the albino again and maybe hug him. So when it was time for his lunch break, he returned home as fast as he could without ruining their food, and he placed it on the table. It smelled nice, and it was still warm.
“Tobirama, I bought some …” He halted when he didn't spot the albino in the living room. Only scattered paper and scrolls, as well as spilled ink. “Tobirama? Precious?” He looked in the bedroom, the library, and his bathroom, but he couldn't find Tobirama anywhere. “Tobirama?”
Sudden feeling of dread grew in the pit of his stomach, urging him to find the albino by his chakra, his water-natured chakra was very distinct from the fire-natured chakras in the Uchiha compound. So he concentrated on his sensing. He spread his chakra all around the compound until he located Tobirama in the lake. IN THE LAKE. Madara had never in his life run this fast. Why was he in a lake? Was he trying to drown himself? He jumped into the cold water without a second thought and swam to the albino.
“ Tobirama, why?” Madara shakily asked as he held the other in his arms. They were both dripping wet. The submissive nearly drowned himself in the nearby lake, luckily, Madara came home when he did, or he'd be dead.
“I want to go back home, I want Anija to love me, but Anija will never love me, I - I…” Tobirama stuttered. “ I want to go back home…” He used his summons to check on the Senju, even if his clan didn't want him, he still cared for Kami knows for what reason. So when he was informed by his summons that Hashirama had not only finally gotten married to Mito, another dominant, a wedding he had worked so hard on, and he couldn’t attend, since he was exiled. But he also gave her his old bedroom and destroyed any trace of himself in the Senju compound. He broke down, hard.
“Tobirama…” Madara planted a soft kiss on the pale forehead.
“They destroyed everything I owned…they destroyed every trace of my existence…”
“What? How do you know that!?” He looked at the sad, pale face, searching for any injuries. Did he return to the Senju compound? Did they try to drown in the lake? How did they pass the guard? How? Why?
“I asked my summons to check on the compound… everything I worked on, gone! I can't go home, there is no place for me at home, why does Anija hate me, why…I only wanted for Anija to love me, I want him to love me like he did when we were kids…before, before…”
“It's ok, Tobi-”
“It's not! It will never be ok…I…I want to turn back time, I want to go back and fix…” The pale man shook his head aggressively.
Cupping one cheek, he brushed it tenderly. “We can't fix the past, Tobirama, but we can work on a better future. Tell me, Precious, what can I do to make you feel better, hmm? Would some blueberry tart make you happy, perhaps some sushi?” He started to think of the rest of the food he bought for lunch, maybe one of those would make him happy.
“Make Anija love me…”
“Tobirama, I can't do that for you, but you're not alone. You're home with the Uchiha now, what can I do to show you that I care…” Tobirama shook his head and tried to pull himself free from the other’s arm, but the Uchiha retaliated by pulling him back closer into the hug. He kissed the pink cheek, making the submissive shudder as he tried but failed to pull away. “Precious, I care for you, Izuna cares for you, Hikaku cares for you…”
“No, no, no…I want my anija, I want to…”
“Tobirama, stop making this hard for yourself. Your brother is not a good man, he exiled you for something you have no control over…” The dom didn’t want to tell Tobirama that his brother didn't love him or care for him. Even if it's the truth, it would be too cruel. “Let it go, Tobirama…you just have to be you…”
“I don't know how…”
“You'll learn…” He looked down at Tobirama. “And I'll be with you every step of the way…” He leaned closer, and so did Tobirama until their lips brushed together in a soft kiss. “Now let's go home and eat, Precious …and then we'll take a nap.” The submissive nodded.
Tobirama didn’t eat much of the food, and Madara didn’t pressure him to eat more. He left the blueberry tarts on the table as he cleaned up the plates, but the albino only stared at the table, completely and utterly defeated. Madara swore he will beat Hashirama into a puddle of blood the next time he saw him. They both bathe, with Madara giving Tobirama the shampoo Izuna bought for the submissive. He explained that it would keep Tobirama’s hair soft as it naturally seems to be.
As they lay in bed, Tobirama finally spoke up. He was quiet the whole way home and at dinner, even when Madara tried to make small talk. “They destroyed my armor and fur pelt…” Tobirama sniffed, curled to Madara’s chest.
“Precious…”
“I don't care about the armor, but the fur was a gift from my mother's clan.” He buried his face in the hard chest, quietly sobbing. “It was Hatake tradition…Madara, why does he hate me so much?”
“I don't know…” Madara still had contact with a merchant from the Hatake clan, maybe he could get a new pelt for Tobirama.