Kindling

Peace was quite nice in Tobirama’s opinion, not that Tobirama’s life was all that peaceful even now but that was rather his fault when it came down to it. Ever since he had gotten well and truly fed up and gone to Mito about peace (her promise that if she could get her hands on Izuna she could change the Uchiha’s mind had been completely fulfilled as- after he dumped Izuna in her and Hashirama’s room and then sulked off to lick his wounds- the Uchiha had staggered out several days later looking dazed and not at all inclined towards hurting anyone) things had gotten underway reassuringly quickly and it hadn’t taken long for there to be a village built and people to start settling in (Izuna still spent a lot of time walking around looking a bit dazed, Tobirama very much didn’t think about it and spent a lot of nights sacked out in his new lab building behind the strong wards far away from any…noises).

Still, not that peaceful, mostly because Tobirama couldn’t stop provoking Madara into fights; anything to feel those strong warm hands on his skin. It had started shortly after everyone got together in the same place for the village and Tobirama spent much of his time with Madara, torn between the want to just wrap himself around the warm Uchiha and his lovely chakra and the need to snarl and snap and lash out every time Madara yelled at him with that familiar disgusted look in his eyes. It was far too like Butsuma and either Tobirama could shut down and go away as he used to with his father and face the repercussions of that (“why are you ignoring me?! arrogant, cold, empty, -“) or get angry and fight back; he had chosen to fight back and he still wasn’t sure if that was a good choice. As soon as he felt that warm hand on his skin even through the gloves he was lost and craved it, craved the feeling of Madara’s hands on him in any way he could get – even in violence (how long had it been since anyone touched him, even in anger? Tobirama was far too fast for most barehanded fighters to touch and who else would touch him? Even Hashirama’s clutching hugs had stopped after Izuna and – whatever that was). Anyway it seemed to make Madara feel a bit better to bang Tobirama up a bit – or at least he thought it did, it was hard to tell with Madara honestly; and Tobirama got what he wanted so it worked out well for everyone right? Right.

Wrong, this was all wrong and Madara for the life of him couldn’t figure out why, it was driving him nuts and there wasn’t even really anyone to ask about it – not like he trusted Hashirama when it came to his brother after all! If he did this never would have happened to begin with and now he was stuck in a cycle with the pale bastard he didn’t know how to stop. He had long since gotten over his anger with the icy ass, honestly it had mostly been stress and worry after Izuna was stolen by him from right under Madara’s nose, still, he could see that all Tobirama had wanted was peace and was trying to get the biggest obstacle out of the way – he had managed to do what Madara never could (and maybe that was part of the Uchiha’s anger too in the end), or at least managed to give Izuna to Mito who had gotten the younger Uchiha straightened out – if a bit…..well. Madara didn’t see Izuna at home much but when he did Izuna was a hell of a lot more relaxed than Madara had realized he could be. Once Madara had managed to come around to that and unwind enough to see how happy his clan was here (not unrelatedly he had come to this realization when Tobirama had left for two weeks on a mission) and that they really were being treated well and without bias – especially the children, children who told him about a Tobirama Madara had had no idea even existed.

Ever since Madara had been trying to figure out how to fix his relationship with the younger Senju and see if he could get a glimpse of the man Kagami adored so much, the one he heard about in Mito’s stories and Touka’s and in the writings he read and yet never saw because within minutes of seeing the dick he would be fully furious and raging as Tobirama pushed his buttons with infuriating skill; just, why? What did Tobirama gain from triggering Madara’s temper so much? He didn’t think the albino disliked him really and he knew Tobirama didn’t think him stupid or he wouldn’t make Madara his collaborator in so many things and yet every time they were in the same room he was being provoked into a fury and found himself with his hands on some part of the bastard. With a sigh Madara shoved his hair back again and listened to Kagami chatter about what he had learned from Tobirama today and how nice his Sensei was and Kagami just wished that Sensei would let Kagami hug him! He was always jumping and looking funny whenever anyone brushed up against him and – but Madara had put listening on hold as sudden thoughts snaped into place in his head.

Tobirama jumping when he was touched and not being touched; but Madara touched him all the time didn’t he? After all Tobirama would provoke things until Madara put a hand on him – not that the Senju didn’t fight back because he did but he always seemed to let it go after Madara touched him, touches he always relaxed into rather than pulling away (Madara had thought it well trained battle or inquisition habits but what if it wasn’t?). But no – that – that wasn’t possible was it? There was no way that Tobirama was that touch starved right? It was insane to think that Tobirama was provoking him into fights just to get touched, insane on so many levels, not least of which was provoking Madara! On the other hand Madara had just been thinking that he didn’t think Tobirama disliked him hadn’t he. Shit.

Two days later after drawing more out of Kagami and setting about carefully observing the bastard he was coming to the conclusion that his hunch might not be so insane after all. No one touched Tobirama, in fact they tended to split around him and move to the edges of halls to avoid touching him at all; it was even worse than the amount of space Madara was given which was admittedly already more than the Uchiha liked. Thoughtfully Madara watched Tobirama listen to Hashirama talk, the older Senju’s hands carefully not touching his brother at all and the next time Tobirama tried to provoke the Uchiha into anger he moved straight to getting physical instead of yelling (huh, notably better in terms of stress too – something to keep in mind) shoving the younger man into the wall hard and pinning him and – fuck. Now that Madara was paying attention he could see the shiver and then relax in the other man’s muscles as he adjusted to the touch and the conclusion was unavoidable. Tobirama was provoking him into fights to get Madara to touch him and what the hell did he do now with this?