Kindling

Madara was well aware that everything about this picture was messed up; he didn’t even know what exactly was happening, all he know was that he hated the look on Tobirama’s face as Hashirama spoke to him.

The younger man was always cold- reserved to the point of utter blankness- but Madara had quickly learned that for all his cool blankness and frozen detachment on the battlefield he was every bit as passionate as his brother. Originally his intent observation of Tobirama had started because of Izuna’s narrow escape on the battlefield; it had been terrifyingly close and Madara always kept a close eye on his brother while he fought- Hashirama had never tried as that hard to kill him anyway, just to keep him busy so he couldn’t wreak havoc anywhere else- and Izuna and Tobirama had always been evenly matched. Izuna probably had a bit more chakra and had the advantage of the sharingan, but Tobirama was faster than hell, had chakra control like nobody’s business, and was clearly insanely smart (along with his reputation as a sensor of nonpareil) so as fast as Izuna could keep up with something Tobirama came up with the albino would then show up on the battle field with another brand new trick that had to be sorted out. Izuna was regularly struggling to keep up and Madara could see in hindsight that half of his brother’s fear of the Senju had really been fear of Tobirama’s intelligence- especially when combined with his seeming indifference to everyone around him; and it was seeming- he was far, far, to good at hiding it, but he was deeply affected by the actions and feelings people around him. More even than Hashirama who’s emotions just bubbled off of him as soon he had them, Tobirama held his close and let them grow deep; like his chakra they grew stronger with careful tending and watchful use (but emotions aren’t chakra, they need space and need to see the light of day and other people), and Madara had very carefully avoided (well, once he stopped looking at Tobirama as the enemy) thinking about what exactly had caused Tobirama to think that he needed to be so cold and emotionless, because if they were still alive, well, they wouldn’t be alive for long.

So the fact that Tobirama looked like this, frozen- the way he looked on the battlefield when facing superior numbers- looking past Hashirama’s shoulder instead of at his face, was flat out wrong- Madara was reminded sickeningly of the way he felt when his father started to lay into him- so why was the albino looking like that with his brother? And for that matter there was a lot of things about the Senju brothers relationship that were strange; sometimes they seemed normal- well, as normal as could be expected with Hashirama involved- with Hashi hanging off Tobirama and pestering him constantly, with teasing and inside jokes, but sometimes it was…. Different. Hashi’s pestering happened a lot when the younger man was working on paperwork and it was frequently paperwork that came from Hashi’s desk, teasing sometimes made Tobirama freeze up like his brother’s words hurt and Hashi ever seemed to notice. Or the fact that Tobirama was so clearly not well taken care of, he had the faint washed out color of the unwell, was too thin and had deep circles under his eyes, his lips were chapped and chewed; it made Madara’s skin itch, he wanted to take Tobirama home and feed him before tucking him in bed to just fucking sleep for a full eight or even ten hours (and yes ok fine, if he wanted to tuck Tobirama into Madara’s bed and maybe he wanted to wake him up with a blow job before feeding him breakfast no one had to know). It had gotten bad enough that Madara had taken to bringing treats to the tower and leaving them of his desk or handing them to him just before meetings when he couldn’t argue about it, he was trying to be discrete but was self-aware enough to know that he didn’t do it very well; and if he was worried enough about it to take action then Hashi should have been in a flat-out tizzy, so the fact the he wasn’t was a bit…. Concerning.

It was also frustrating that Tobirama looked worse now in peace than he had when they were at war. Why?! Just why? Also, yeah, no, Madara was done watching whatever this was. He stood up from his desk and stomped his way out of his office (the door of which was basically always open, he believed in seeing what else was going on in the top floor of the tower as much as possible) not bothering to give the open doorway of the Hokage’s office even a cursory knock; Hashirama turned to look, brightening when he saw Madara- who completely ignored him and his open mouth- and stomped to the too quiet Tobirama who was looking determinedly out the window. He snagged the albino by his wrist and turned, stomping right back out, towing a strangly compliant Tobirama behind him; in the end was all he needed to make up his mind and just kept walking straight out of the tower, Tobirama gave a token protest about paperwork left undone but it was halfhearted at best so Madara just kept walking straight to Tobirama’s house (which, why wasn’t it in the Senju quarter? Tobirama said it was to be closer to the tower if he was needed- and he was close- but still…. Hashirama still lived in the family compound). He gave Tobirama an unimpressed look when he didn’t begin dismantling the wards and traps around his house right way- unhappy with the slightly glassy look in the albino’s eyes- before towing him into his house and sitting him down at the table unnerved by Tobirama’s continued docility; Madara surveyed the younger man for a moment and rolled up his sleeves as he began poking around the kitchen to see if there was anything he could make into a real meal, specifically a hot meal.

Luckily the prosses of putting together food out of the rather hit-or-miss provisions in Tobirama’s pantry gave him a little time to gather his temper so he wouldn’t shout at Tobirama, it also meant he shrugged off the high collared Uchiha outer robe and eventually began looking for something to tie his hair back about the time he went to grill the fish (there was lots of fish available oddly enough, or maybe not- didn’t Tobirama have cat summons of some kind?). Madara only barely stopped himself from yelping undignifiedly when there was a light touch on his shoulder, blinking when Tobirama held up a thin length of red ribbon reaching for it only to have Tobirama gently turn him to face the fish again and began tying his hair back (Madara didn’t start blushing, he didn’t) before drifting back to the table. The silence between them became increasingly calm and easy as Madara’s anger abated and Tobirama seemed to come out of his fugue a little, even smiling faintly when Madara set bowls of food on the table, Madara nearly tripped and spilled food everywhere at the sight of the faint upward tilt to the younger man’s lips (oh god, what could he do to make that happen again. And could he make him smile, like fully smile!? Maybe it would be good for that to wait, he wasn’t sure his heart could handle that.). Madara cleared his throat and focused on his own food until he could look at Tobirama without making a fool of himself; peaking through his bangs at the albino who was looking more tired than traumatized now and steadily eating his dinner (lucky, that was not a given, Madara had seen him completely ignore food in front of him when stressed or distracted. Hence Madara being careful to bring things Tobirama liked to the tower for him so he wouldn’t turn it down) though he looked to be all but falling asleep. As soon as food was done Madara chivied him into the bath and then and then washed the dishes as the younger man showered, when Tobirama stumbled out of the bath wrapped in an old yukata, sleepy eyed and damp, Madara had to send him to bed right away so he could have a quiet breakdown in the kitchen, go why did he have to be adorable and hot and smart and deadly, it wasn’t fair!