"We're villains, we don't have time for romance, hm."
"For fucks sake can't we for once act like normal people with emotions? I'm sorry this happened but I can't help who I end up liking."
"You're an idiot for even having them in the first place."
"Do you even like me as a partner?!"
"I don't know, I haven't decided yet, hm!"
The mission had gone completely awry; neither of them had spoken since they had taken up shelter in an underground bunker. A single bed with two cabinets against two of the walls; one cabinet had food pill rations while the other was stocked with still usable medical supplies, a single chair and half of what seemed to be a bathroom.
It was simple mission to start with; infiltrate the waterfall village, take out two of the council members and get out without being caught. It should have been easy; it would have had they not had a fight.
Deidara had himself sitting on the bed; cloak removed as he bandaged himself up from their failure. He had gotten lucky, just a few kunai cuts and stab wounds. His partner wasnt too lucky. She'd gotten too close to his bombs, one of them launching wooden shrapnel into her left leg and shoulder. Sure, her ice style stopped the bleeding but she could barely defend herself with only two working limbs. Now she had taken up the chair and kept to the far end of the room, her back facing the other.
"Are you going to just sit there and give me the silent treatment or are you going to let me see your injuries, hm?" Deidara's voice called out; getting silence in return. He should of known, the way she ignored him when he called out for her to get back should had been a sign. "Stop acting like a child and let me see your leg and shoulder Miko."
Miko, said woman across from him said nothing, only pulled her bloody and tattered cloak tighter around her body. It was obvious that she was being childish, but the simple fact that Deidara wouldn't hear her out hurt more than the physical wounds she had. Her hands shook as she reached up to pull her long black hair into a high ponytail; the wood in her left shoulder making hard to do so but she wasn't going to ask for help.
Once her hair was pulled out of the way, she slid the cloak off her shoulders; the fabric catching on the wood sticking out. "Shit-" Miko hissed to herself, she could feel the fresh blood starting to dampen her compression crop top, she had to pull it out or it'd just keep bleeding if she couldn't freeze the wound over. She tucked a portion of her cloak into her mouth, biting down as she squeezed her ice blue eyes shut; the fingers from her right had firmly grasped the shrapnel piece before roughly yanking it out. Miko wanted to scream out but didn't, she only bit down onto the cloak harder and let go once the pain subsided; her breath coming out as strained pants.
"It wouldn't be so hard if you just let me help, hm." Deidara said snidely, not phased at seeing the other rip the wood out. He saw her shoulders tense for a moment before she discarded the wood and took a long shuddering breath; her left shoulder quickly freezing over.
"Turn away." Miko's voice was short; venom mixed with anger lacing her tone, "Turn away, now."
Deidara narrowed his visible eye at her, "Finally speaking to me now, huh? And why should I? You've done nothing but do exactly the opposite of what I said, hm."
"I'm about to get the wood out of my leg, I have to remove my pants for it. Unfortunately it can't wait right now because someone got a little trigger happy and now I have a hunk of wood in my leg!" Her voice began to rise, trying her best to keep calm in their current situation.
"If you would let me help you, it'd be over even faster then we can get out of here!" Deidara snapped, jumping up to his feet to stomp over to Miko, "This wouldn't have happened if-"
"If Sasori was still here, I know! He was so much better as a partner than I am. For fucks sake you don't have to remind me." Miko cut him off, reaching for the waistband of her pants to start tugging them down, "He was such a perfect partner for you, with the whole artist thing and you had jutsus that worked so well!"
"Just listen to me! If you would of listened when I said go right, we wouldn't be in this mess!" Deidara grabbed her good shoulder to turn her to face him; unprepared for the angry look in her eyes accompanied with tears.
Miko slapped away his hand before shoving him away, "You can go to hell Deidara! I can take care of myself."
"Like hell you can!" He grabbed her once more, lifting and then pulling her over to the bed so he could treat it, "You're no use to the Akatsuki if you can't even walk."
He was right, but Miko wasn't going to admit it. She had her own pride and broken heart to deal with. She tried to fight him off, not wanting any of his very much needed help. She sat up and kept trying to push him away before he swung his leg over her waist, using both his hands to pin her down and using his own weight to prevent her from rolling over. She glared up at him, not saying a word, Miko wasn't about to bend to his demands.
"Just let me wrap your stupid leg and then you can go back to your corner and pout, hm." Deidara wasn't about to let up, he knew they'd both be in trouble if left incapacitated for too long.
Miko gave a faint grunt before giving a nod; signalling for him to do what he needed. Deidara worked in silence as he pulled the shrapnel out of her thigh, grabbing bandages, disinfectant, and healing salve to properly patch her leg until they could get to Kakuzu to sew it up. It wasn't too deep but some of the muscle needed time to heal for sure. He knew his words from their fight were harsh, but he knew falling in love with a fellow member would complicate things, it was selfish but neither of them needed a heavy heart if the other were to suddenly die.
"Why did you say it."
"What?"
"Why did you call me an idiot for having feelings for you." Miko was suddenly calm, looking off to the side, "We are only human, things like this happen all the time."
"We shouldn't entertain these kinds of feelings. We are all S-rank criminals; we lost the right to even have those niceties long ago. All we can do is listen to our leader, take down those who oppose us then in turn live another day." Deidara had taken the chair and was now sitting in it, working on some possible explosive designs. "I push mine down or it'll become a distraction, hm."
Miko frowned, rolling onto her right side to face away from him, "I see then. Sorry for being a distraction then. Once we talk to Leader, I'll request to be paired up with someone else, maybe Uchiha will be a better fit to work with."
Deidara felt a surge of anger immediately bubble in his stomach, gritting his teeth. Just the mention of Itachi's name made him somewhat irrationally angry; would she really pick him as a replacement over him? No, no she wouldn't; when in proper sync; they were a hard duo to take down with her ice being able to incapacitate people so he could freely blow up people.
She knew it was a dirty trick to play, but it was only partially a trick as she realized her feelings were going to stay unrequited; she needed to not have him as a teammate anymore. If it meant aligning herself with his self-proclaimed rival; then so be it, she was not about to let him make her feel miserable. "His fire and my ice will be complementary to each other. We're both more adept to stealth too. Plus, last time I checked, you and Kisame get along fairly well."
"Like hell you are, I'm not giving anything or anyone up to that bastard." Deidara seethed, his posture now tense as he turned to face Miko, "Why the hell would you pick him over any of the others? All of his talent and power relies in his stupid Sharingan, besides that he's a one trick pony, hm."
"Hidan and I don't work well together, Kakuzu makes me uncomfortable to hell and back, I would work with Kisame if our jutsus weren't so similar, I highly doubt I would be paired up with either of our leaders and I am not going to be dealing with Tobi or Zetsu." None of what she said were lies, she respected the other members just as much as the next person. She'd only been on two missions before with Itachi before being officially assigned to working with Deidara; she and Itachi had worked nearly flawlessly together. Her and Deidara got off to a rocky start but soon figured out how to make their abilities work together to their advantage.
"Its obvious that you don't feel the same way as I do, it's for the best until I can get over them and properly bury them like I do everything else." Miko didn't turn to face him, she kept her back to him as she used her cloak to as a makeshift blanket, "I'm going to sleep, do whatever you want."
Deidara let out an irritated grunt, not saying anything else. He wasn't going to tell her that he enjoyed being around her, not after what she said. Her confession caught him off guard but deep down he knew he felt the same, they were a powerful duo. Her ice over his bombs made it hard for sensory types to locate them. She was strong willed and enjoyed a good battle as long as victory was guaranteed. There was one fight particular that made him realize he had fallen for her.
It was a minor mistake really, they'd had been wandering one of the country sides of Konoha, stopping at a small food shop to get something to eat before they were spotted by leaf shinobi. Both Akatsuki members tried to play it off, saying that it was from a lost bet but then one of the shinobi pulled out their Bingo book; they knew they had to take them out.
It had been more fun that he was expecting, he had a few scrapes and bruises while Miko was nearly unscathed except for parts of her hair being either singed off or cut at weird lengths and her cloak having a few tatters on it.
"I took a calculated risk, but boy, am I bad at math. They really gave me a run for my money with their fire styles." Miko nearly howled in laughter, a bright smile on her face as she wiped a tear from her eye. They had made their escape on one of Deidara's birds.
She looked radiant under what was now twilight, her bright blue eyes sparkled as the orange light filled them, the light made her skin glow as if she was porcelain, "We should probably head northeast and find an inn for the night, I don't want another run in with the leaf any time soon. What do you say, Dei?" Miko looked at him, a grin on her face.
Deidara felt the pit of his stomach twist, quickly looking away from her, "Yeah, sounds good to me, hm." He didn't like how this was going one bit. He had to squash any feelings he had as soon as possible.