Docuument Opened: 04/28/2009, 10:48pm.
Authors Note:
Chapter one has the drama but afterward it's humor.
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He coughed out a little blood after the punch that hit the side of his face sent him on the ground. Even as good as he was not even he could take on the nine of them and win, well eight. The girl never seemed to get involved in their tormenting him. Almost everyday they wanted to pick a fight with him. Only because he refused to join their gang.
Well, Sasori probably did it since no matter what he tried he would not go out with him. It wasn't that he didn't like the red head, that couldn't be farther from the truth. But only known by him and his doctor he had a heart problem. The medicine helped prolong his life a bit but he would be surprised to make it to his sixteenth and or seventeenth birthday.
Besides, with his birth defects there was no way Sasori would still like him. That aside he would not want to put him through the pain of losing someone, assuming they ever went out and it worked.
After they left he staggered to get up and head back to his apartment. The place where he would probably end up dying alone.
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The rest of the week went by fairly quickly and with only one other confrontation with Akatsuki two days ago. Now it was Saturday morning and since it was such a nice day he decided to enjoy it. One of his favorite things to do was get an ice cream cone from one of the shops and take a walk around the local park. He enjoyed listening and watching the birds there.
Going into the parlour he was unaware of the blue haired girl following him inside.
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"You're surprisingly difficult to find, you know that?" She said while walking up beside him. He of course had visibly jumped but turned around to face her. "I'm not in the mood to fight today, un."
"Thats good since I did not come here to fight, simply talk. And yes I am alone. No, Pein did not send me to do this." She knew the shorter blond was no idiot and would probably not believe her. She was telling the truth however. She was not even wearing her gang jacket today. Just a simple white shirt with puffed sleeves and a pair of denim jeans with her slightly heeled black boots that went just below mid-calf. She also wore silver hoop earrings to match the stud below her bottom lip. Lastly there was a white origami flower pinned up in her blue hair.
He looked in her green eyes and for the most part could see that she was telling the truth, of course he still doubted her. Then again she really never participated in the fights he had with them.
"Fine. What did you want to talk about, un?" He crossed his arms.
"Hold on for a moment." She walked past him and up to the counter. He saw her talk to the clerk and not long later she came back and handed him an ice cream cone. "My treat. Shall we go then?"
He accepted the cone and hesitantly followed.
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After a couple of minutes of walking the two were in the park seated at one of the benches.
"I'm curious. You refuse to join us but you never said why. Of course if it's touchy then we can talk about something else."
"That might be good, un." He did not even want to think about it today.
"Okay." She moved on to another topic and the two went back and forth for few minutes.
Finally after she asked if he liked birds after noticing his reactions to one whenever one would fly by and he asked about her hair color, a silence reigned for a moment before she spoke again. "I would like to apologize for what Pein and the others have been doing lately. It seems like mindless bullying and normally they're not like that." The girl had been wondering why Pein was so adamant on getting this boy in particular. Even his methods had been harsh.
"It's okay. I can tell it's not 'bullying' since they all fight at once. And believe me, I have seen actual bullies, un." Not even once had they held him down and beat him up like that. He held some minor respect for them since they did fight at least somewhat fair.
"You're a good kid." She could see why Sasori liked him.
They spent the next few minutes talking about various things. Of course she would be careful to not let Pein know that she had done this. She had only wanted to get to know the possible recruit a little better.
But after an hour she had to leave and he took his walk through the park. It was still early and he had no where to be.
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Unbeknownst to the blond yet another Akatsuki member was watching him from a distance. A certain red head who couldn't figure out why the blond would not go out with him.
One of the last times he had asked he had even said he could get the others to stop fighting him even if he still did not wish to join. The younger teen still refused. He only told him in a bit of a sad tone that it was complicated.
Of course since he was Akasuna Sasori, he did not take 'no' for an answer in any form. He made a 'Tch' noise. It was not as if he was going to rape the teen, well, he wanted to do something along those lines but only consensual.
The only thing keeping him from going over there was the fact he knew that the blue eyed male would react like a deer who had been caught at it's drinking spot. He would act surprised then escape before the hunter could make his move. No, he would wait until they were both on school grounds to ask him again.
For now he would let the boy be and he left himself to go plot his next attempt Monday. He cast one more glance over at Deidara, who was leaning against a tree: Seemingly lost in his own world as he continued to gaze up at the clear blue sky.
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The rest of Saturday came and went without incident. But now it was Sunday night and he had left his apartment to go buy some more clay since he was out. "Knew I should have gone yesterday, un." He muttered to himself as he turned the street corner.
"Wouldn't have pegged you as someone to f*cking talk to yourself." A silver haired teen stated having heard the blond.
Deidara's expression was one of annoyance at the sight of the Akatsuki. 'Just my luck to run into them now, un.'
"Have you reconsidered joining?" Pein was standing at the head of the group along with Konan.
He narrowed his eyes at them. "No. Can't you go pick on somebody else? I'm not the only person in the school who can fight, un."
"True, but you are the only other one who can fight at our level. Unless you give me a good enough reason to not join then we will keep asking." Pein crossed his arms and everyone else remained silent.
'Maybe they will leave me alone if I tell them. It's not like it could get any worse, un.' He let out a defeated sigh. "Fine. You really wanna know, un?"
"Yes." He watched as the younger teen crossed his arms and glanced off to the side. Almost saddened.
"I'm dying. Every fight I get into, every punch and kick lowers my lifespan by some little bit. All because my heart is slowly failing. Even at this point I'm lucky to be alive so congratulations you know one of my three best kept secrets, un."
"Why didn't you mention this sooner?"
"Should I have really had too, un?" He started walking past the silent group. Angry at them, at his heart, at everything. At least now they might leave him alone.
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After turning the corner he had walked a couple of blocks in silence. No one had followed him which he deemed a good thing. He stopped for a moment however after hearing some rustling from nearby.
His visible eye darted back and forth attempting to pinpoint the location of the noise. The blond had a feeling that he was about to shorten his lifespan a little bit more.
Something hard was suddenly pressed against the middle of his back. 'Why do I have to be right, un?'
"Give me your money and I won't shoot you." The man said in an almost shaky tone.
"You might as well shoot me, un." What good was this life to him anyway? He was already alone and being shot and left to slowly rot near an old alley would have just been icing on the cake.
"I mean it. Last warning, give me your wallet and you can live." The blond only grinned evilly. Why not take chances. Quickly he elbowed the mugger in the stomach and the man stumbled back a little accidentally firing off his gun and the bullet found itself in the back of the teens right shoulder.
He hissed in pain and had fallen to his knees as a familiar tightening in his chest made itself known. "Not...now, un." The teen felt like he could barely breathe. Only vaguely aware of the fact the mugger was still there.
"You've seen to much for me to let you live now kid." He couldn't even move as he heard the gun cock.
Everything seemed to go in slow motion as he looked up in time to see Akatsuki's leader, Pein, punch the man from the side. Not going down easily the man turned around to block the next punch and retaliate by kicking the ginger haired teen hard enough to send him stumbling backward a little bit behind the blond who was still on the ground and a couple of feet into the street.
Within a blink of an eye three other Akatsuki had the man surrounded. Sasori, the silver haired teen and another one with deep brown hair and what looked like various stitches on his face.
RIght now he wished the pain and tightness would hurry up and subside. It generally only lasted three to five minutes but at the moment it felt like it was taking an eternity, plus he could feel a little bit of blood running down his back and dripping on the concrete below him.
"Come on." The blue haired girl had knelt down beside him to help him stand up. Even in his current state he was reluctant to accept her help but did so regardless.
"What...are...you doing..here, un?" He managed to get out since the tightness had subsided a little. He glanced at her curiously. Pain still evident on his face though.
"Pein wanted to have a quick word with you and then we heard the gunshot." Konan looked a the others. Pein was still standing in the street but was not so far away as before. His arms were crossed while he watched the others.
Sasori, Hidan and Kakuzu had beaten the man senseless by now and were watching him until the police arrived since Itachi called them.
Suddenly everyone's heads perked up a the sound of a car horn honking furiously as it sped closer to Pein who had yet to get out of the road.
Within a few seconds Deidara saw Konan's green eyes grow wide with worry as the vehicle came closer and much to his own surprise and that of everyone else he managed to garner enough energy to run over. "Lookout, un!" He gasped out while shoving the ginger haired teen hard enough to knock him out of the way and ultimately take the brunt of the front of the vehicle himself
His body rolled a few feet before stopping and landing on his side. Blood started pooliing around his two hidden palm mouths and his chest one. Everything seemed to go in a flurry from there.
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It took nearly six hours of work before he was stable enough to be left alone in a room in the ICU.
Since it was three thirteen in the morning most of the Akatsuki had gone home. A little reluctantly since almost all of them felt some level of guilt for their tormenting of the younger teen. Even after finding out by accident about his extra mouths.
It was only Pein, Konan and Sasori who remained.
"What do we do now?" Sasori half asked Pein and half asked himself. He could take a guess now as to why the blond wouldn't go out with him.
"There's nothing we can do right now. We should head back home since it is Monday." He had been resting his head in his hands for a minute or so. He had been going back and forth with himself over the matter. The blond had saved his life but there was a good chance he was going to die sooner becuase of it. But if he had just mentioned it in the first then none of them would be there now.
He and Konan stood up, on some level he couldn't blame the teen for not wanting anyone to know. Things like that tended to bring on unwanted pity and certain attention. And it was fairly obvious that he wanted neither of those things.
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Everyday for almost a week at least two of them dropped by to check in on the comatose blond. For the most Sasori was always one of them.
On Thursday after Hidan had said he had to go, Sasori stayed behind to see the teen for a little longer.
He hovered over the sleeping form. Even with the oxygen mask around his face he looked peaceful. His long golden hair was completely down and the long fringe of bang was still settled over the left side of his face.
Against his better judgment he hesitantly ran his hand through a few pieces of stray hair hanging off to the side and blinked for a moment since he wasn't quite expecting it to be so soft.
Sasori retracted his hand hearing the door open and a glanced at the nurse who came in. He was silent for a moment but there was smething that had been bothering him slightly since the blond had been put in here. "Excuse me, but are we the only ones to have been by to see him?" She was a nice lady. One that had been there checking on the teen and changing his I.V.
"I guess he didn't tell you." She shook her head, she had been there to help take care of the boy for years.
"We haven't been friends for long." He looked back down at the sleeping form.
"I probably shouldn't even be telling you this but there is a small chance of brain damage and he may not remember much when he wakes up. But both of his parents have been dead for years. Normally I wouldn't wish that on a child but the boy was my first exception." She made a 'tsk' noise and proceeded to change his I.V. and check his heart monitor.
She saw the look on his face, one of concern and thought. The older woman wasn't sure but she could have sworn there was something else there as well. "Well, I can tell you this much. If his stats remain this well then tomorrow or the day after that he'll be out of the ICU and in a normal room."
A little bit of relief came onto his face. "Do you know by any chance when he might awaken?"
The nurse was thoughtful for a moment. "Well, with his vitals stable as they are, it could be anytime now."
"Thank you for the information." He left shortly after. Pein had been thinking about something ever since the incident occured.
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The next day after school only Pein and Sasori went. However before entering the room Pein spoke. "I have been thinking about this for awhile now and for the time being I think Deidara should still be in Akatsuki." Seeing the questioning gaze on Sasori's face he continued.
"I owe him my life and the least we can do is make sure what time he has left is not cut short or spent alone. Besides, I know about your feelings for him. And the fact you keep coming everyday to see him means you still like him, am I correct?" He raised an eyebrow while crossing his arms. The ring with the kanji for 'Sei' inscribed on it was already in his hand.
"Is it a problem?" His feelings for the younger male remained unphased. Even after what he found out.
"No. I have to make a quick call but I want you to take this, You know what to do." He handed the ring to Sasori who nodded and went inside the teen's new room. The nurse had been right. Early that morning he had been transferred to a normal room to be watched.
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Walking up to the blonds bed he noted how it looked like the teen would just wake up any second now. Truthfully he would rather have the blond awake and yelling at him rather than laying there looking so helpless.
'At least he's a little better.' He thought while slipping the ring on the blue eyed boys finger.
Strangely enough as soon as he took a step back the boy in the bed started to stir.
Sasori's breath was practically caught in his throat as the blond slowly opened his visible blue eye. He was puzzled for a moment as the teen looked to the right and slowly sat up before looking to the left and he could plainly see confusion in that pale blue eye.
Tilting his head slightly the first words to utter out of the blonds mouth. "Who are you, un?"
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Auhtors Note:
Finally done with this chapter. Now I can move on to writing the romantic/comedy/fluffy bits.
Yes, depsite the awful first chapter the rest of the story is a romantic comedy.
Finished: 05/07/2009, 03:39-52-53am.