Sasori eyed up the blond standing in front of him. He wasn't as short as he once was when they first met, but over the time he was sure had gotten tall, lanky and awkward. After fighting with his parents he got to keep his hair long, but only on the circumstances if he got an inch cut off once a year. This Deidara before him was no longer the second grader he once fell in love with. Instead he was now the eighth grader whom he was still in love with.

An eighth grader with a brand smackin' new mouth full of metal that certainly wasn't there the last time he saw him

"Well? Aren't you going to kiss me?"

Sasori focused in on the metal nubs behind his boyfriend's unfortunately chapped lips. Deidara had actually missed the whole day of school the day prior to get the braces in his mouth put on. Usually he would have gone over to the blond's house afterward school, but the boy was so adamant that he didn't want to be seen. That and he said his teeth and inner lips were beginning to hurt. There was a good chance he just didn't want to be seen blubbering like a big baby over his new look.

"Does... Does it really hurt?" Sasori asked finally standing up and moving on his tip toes to get a better look at what was now intruding in his boyfriend's mouth.

"A little, but the orthodontist said it would hurt a lot in a couple days when the teeth start to move more, un. She also gave me some wax for any sharp edges." He said flashing a piece of metal surrounded in the said wax by pushing his lip down with his finger. "Oh right, and I took medicine for it this morning so I'm sorta fine... At least until my next dose."

Sasori sighed, started packing up his things on the bench behind him and headed onwards to middle school. "Well I hope they don't hurt you too much. You can get awful cranky when you're in pain." He muttered cooly looking back over his shoulder.

"I'm not cranky! After I endure all this pain, I can have nice teeth like you, un!"

That was true. Sasori had been blessed with fairly straight teeth. His mouth and jaw were so small his Granny worried that the teeth would have no room to grow in. She worried for nothing as all his teeth came in near to perfectly straight after getting four of them pulled. His dentist mentioned he thankfully had matching small teeth that fit snugly in the tiny mouth. However when his wisdom teeth came in though, oh boy. There was no room for those badboys. They had to get outta there!

"Hey get back here! You still haven't given me my morning kiss, un!"

That was true as well. Since the day they after realized their feelings for one another and started dating four years ago, they had greeted each other with a kiss. No shame, no regrets; just sweet kisses with the love of your life every single day.

And it was fantastic.

Sasori looked back at Deidara's mouth again his eyes narrowing at the sight. With the braces in his mouth, it seemed like Deidara could no longer keep his mouth shut without having to put a little effort into it. When he starts wearing elastics though, maybe that will help keep the already big mouth closed. That gaping jaw wasn't very cute. It was also not a very good reminder that whenever Sasori would look at his friend, he'd have to see the gleam of metal behind Deidara's once sweet and most kissable lips.

"Well?" Deidara huffed as he skipped to catch up, leaning in immediately with a small pucker, ready to get his morning kiss.

Even when his lips were puckered he could see small bits of metal and it made him recoil. Now Sasori had only ever received one bad kiss from Deidara, and that was back in grade four when the dumb blond got a nasty flu virus and unfortunately shared it with him. Then there was also that time Deidara thought it would be a good idea to kiss the eye that Sasori poked with his thumb. That was back when they first started kissing though; they were young and stupid back then.

It didn't matter though! He was not in the mood to experience his first metallic kiss from his favorite person. There was no way he was going to have yet another bad kiss in his life!

I mean, what if it did turn out to be terrible? Then he would have to go two or three years without kissing his lovey-dovey! That certainly didn't sound appealing. It was killing him to not kiss Deidara here and now... If only it weren't for the braces!

Deidara huffed again and stomped his feet at the lack of lips on his own. "What the heck, man! I get braces and now I'm not cute or worthy enough to kiss you anymore, un?"

"That's not it!"

"That's not it? So there is something holding you back!" Deidara let out an angry grunt, looked both ways and crossed the street. "You can walk to school all by yourself today!"

"Deidara, please - "

"And don't think about walking home with me either! Or playing with me at lunch! You're not invited, meat-head!" Deidara cut off yelling even louder before he ran off.

"Meat-head!? At least I'm not a metal mouth!" He yelled back at the slowly disappearing blond. Realizing what he said, Sasori now really hoped Deidara hadn't heard that metal mouth bit. That was quite rude of him. "Oh well, we still sit next to each other in class..."

-x-

When Sasori finally got to school, he saw Deidara sitting in the line up just outside of the door, sulking. A few kids had tried to ask the boy where he had been the day before, but he didn't say anything. If his bestfriend and then boyfriend of four whole years found the braces to be so gross that he wanted to stop a long time tradition, then how would the other kids treat him?

Yeah! Think about that!

The braces had without a doubt lowered his self esteem. He was already rather skinny compared to the other kids. Some of the boys were beginning to bulk up already, and here he was a thin, gawky and now a braceface. In the end it would be worth it, right? He would have beautiful teeth and a lovely mouth; something Sasori would be proud to kiss.

"If that little turd thinks he's ever gonna be kissin my lips again, he can kiss my ass instead, un." Deidara grumbled quietly into his arms as he sulked some more over being called metal mouth.

Yeah he heard that.

Sasori sat down as well not to far from the blond and continued to watch him from afar. The blonds head was like a little volcano, you could practically see the steam and ash pooling out of it. Really the only thing pooling out was a ponytail on top of his head, but you get the point that he did indeed look very mad.

During class the blond had made it very obvious that he didn't want anything to do with his bestfriend. A textbook was propped up at all times separating them. This was a troubling time in his life, things were changing and getting weird. He really missed the times when they were young. Sasori back then was all about the compliments, was even loud and proud to let the world know that Deidara belonged to him! As of recently that all changed, maybe the guy was having second thoughts... What if Sasori actually wanted to break up with him!?

Sure Deidara was no longer the striking little beauty he once was, but he was the same person on the inside, right? Besides! This would all be over with once puberty is over. His mother said he would become twice as beautiful!

Ugly ducklings turn super hot. But what about cute ducklings that turn ugly?

Deidara sighed and drew angry circles on the corner of his school work. Why couldn't she have just said that he was already beautiful? Where were the pretty lies mothers were supposed to tell their kids? This really sucked.

Sasori did as he was told and kept a distance from his boyfriend. He just needed time to cool off, right? Sure his darling had gotten taller than him, had a few pimples around his hairline, and braces, but that didn't mean he was a disgusting swamp creature. Yes, Sasori was in fact still in love with the blond, however what if things did actually get worse? What if Deidara really did turn into some sort swamp creature!

He shook that thought from his head immediately. That was no way to think of his long time love. Back when they were younger, it was Sasori who was the one who got picked on for being a chubby, pot-bellied cry baby. Deidara stuck to him through all that.

Lunch was the same of them remaining separate from one another, but still not without Sasori sparing his few glances. Deidara on the other hand was more preoccupied with burning a hole into the table in front of him with his eyes.

The odd and lonely day eventually ended though.

Walking home alone, Sasori made his way into an empty house where Deidara would usually be, ready to play video games. Instead, up the stairs and into the bathroom he went. Locking the door he looked into the mirror and frowned. What if Deidara saw him the way he currently saw the blond? Sasori lowered his gaze up and down at his short stature and grabbed at his still rather fat stomach and little man breasts. Man he really wished he were twenty-or-so pounds lighter. Maybe even thirty. Pushing back his hair he looked at the zit that had popped up in the middle of his forehead.

Damnit. It got bigger than what it was this morning! It was starting to hurt too! Lovely. Simply lovely.

Grabbing his stick of sweat deodorant, he almost applied his third layer of the day. That was another problem he had - sweating. Sure it was something that could be controlled...a bit. However the worst part was it stunk if he didn't keep up with constant applying more and more deodorant and other colognes. That was the thing he tried to keep a secret from his boyfriend.

Short, fat and stinky. Yeah, he was no prize pig either. In fact he was the piggiest pig of them all! So why couldn't he kiss Deidara earlier today? Sasori bit his lip as he wondered what it would be like if Deidara wouldn't kiss him because he stank or was too fat?

"Ouch..." He muttered, easing up the bite on his lip.

Putting the deodorant stick down, Sasori changed his mind and instead stripped down to take a shower. That thought though had really hurt his feelings. Double ouch in fact. He truly loved Deidara and the idea of his darling being grossed out by him was a rush of pins and needles all over - especially on his heart.

A few streets over Deidara was in his own bathroom. Instead of standing however, he sat on the countertop with his feet in the sink. Craning his neck and face close to the mirror with his hair pulled back, he looked closely at his teeth with wide eyes. It wasn't so bad in there... Sure it wasn't lovey, but It's not like he wore headgear or anything. Hissing like a wild animal at his own reflection, he climbed down off the counter and dug out his brand new face cleanser and put a dollop on his few bumps of acne near his hair line that he had recently been covering more and more with his hair.

'It's just a new hairstyle I'm trying out! Relax Sasori~'

Ha! Yeah right.

"Who does that midget think he is! I don't tell him that he reeks..." Deidara muttered closing the cap and putting the bottle away. "He wears way too much deodorant and keeps applying more and more for some reason!"

Sighing Deidara got out his toothbrush and decided to give his chompers a good brush while he waited for the cleanser to take effect. They may be covered in metal but that didn't mean he could let the teeth behind them turn yellow. Cavities didn't sound very pleasant either.

Wetting a cloth he wiped his forehead clean of the cleanser. "What a butthole that SASORI is, sheesh!" He then hissed angrily, sliding the chunk of his long blond hair back to cover half of his face once he had spat and wiped his face clean of the remnants with the same towel.

-x-

Sasori sat on the bench at their regular meeting spot kicking his short legs that still couldn't touch the ground. He hissed at that. Not only at not being able to reach the ground like Deidara could, but also by the fact Deidara was late. Later than usual. Could he have left earlier and already gone past the meeting spot? No, that was a very un-Deidara thing to do. The brat was always late for some reason.

Right on his later than usual time, here came Deidara marching on down the pavement. It didn't take very long to see that the blond was indeed still furious.

Arms swinging in a stiff march, Deidara grunted angrily as he walked right past Sasori who was in the process of getting his things together.

It was clear to Deidara that his short and under developed friend wanted to tag along and in all honesty he did miss said little guy. However he was still quite bothered that he was turned down during his time of need. Yeah, he had talked it over in his brain while he was trying to sleep the night before.

Even Sasori agreed he was the one at fault. In fact he even regretted eating dessert the night before. He didn't deserve that slice of Granny's famous triple chocolate fudge cake! If only he had realized it sooner. That might have given him the will power not to be a glutton and take the largest slice.

Scrambling up, Sasori dashed after Deidara. Curse his friend's longer legs! Oh - and curse his short pudgy body that made running the worst!

"Deidara!" He huffed, smacking his lips as he sucked in the weathers cool air. "D-Deidara please wait!"

Luckily for him Deidara did halt, however that was only to send a nasty glare over his shoulder.

"I-I deserve that look, but please listen!"

After a few more wary steps Deidara stopped altogether again, this time turning on his toes and marching towards the boy who was still running awkwardly towards him. That resulted in Deidara glaring down at his friend menacingly.

Sasori looked at Deidara's face. It was clearly unhappy. An unhappy Deidara was just... There was no usual wild glow that the dumb brat was known for. It was weird.

"What do you want, Sasori?"

Sasori? No 'Danna'? Ouch.

Deidara gazed at Sasori's face after he had said that. What was present was a whole lot of hurt. It reminded him of why they became friends in the first place. Sasori was sad, alone and needing a friend. He had always thought he had helped the redhead get past all that, but here he was face to face with him - looking as heart broken as ever.

Eyes droopy and sad.

Ringed with dark circles.

Cheeks hot and flushed in embarrassment.

It was like looking into the old Sasori he knew's face. The old face he had tried A look so hard to get rid of and replace with a smile. It was weird. The worst part was that something told him he was at fault for making his bestfriend so glum.

"Deidara, I'm sorry I didn't kiss you yesterday!" Sasori finally spat out, making a big move by grabbing his hand tightly so the other couldn't flee.

This had to be settled as fast as possible.

Deidara sucked his teeth and looked away. Man, when Sasori used his water works, he worked them to the max. This was unbearable!

"Please Deidara, please kiss me."

Looking away from the desperate scene, Deidara groaned as he chewed his bottom lip; metal teeth peeking out in the process.

"Please Deidara, I miss you in my life. I have been away from you for what seems like eternity; my world without you is unbearable!"

"Metal mouth or not, un?" Deidara asked with one brow risen.

Sasori chuckled, "Only if you can love a short, fat, meat-head."

This made Deidara frown. "You're not fat or short?"

Rolling his eyes, Sasori shook his head. "Deidara, I don't need or even deserve your flattery."

"I'm not kidding though, un. You're an average weight, I'm just super skinny."

"And my height?" Sasori sulked with his bottom lip protruding in a pout.

Pulling Sasori in, Deidara wrapped his arms around his friend, "Why, you're just the perfect height for me to hug, un." He said as he gave Sasori the hug where his head rested gently into his chest.

"Oh Deidara... You're too sweet. I love you so much." Sasori swooned as he hugged back.

"Danna... I will say something though, un."

"Huh?" Sasori grunted, pulling back a bit.

Deidara chuckled, "Please stop wearing so much cologne. It's so awful."

Sasori frowned. "But if I don't wear it I'll stink!"

"Just wear a regular deodorant for now and let's go cologne shopping this weekend. I will pick one out for you, un." Deidara said wrapping an arm around Sasori so they could continue walking to school.

That caught Sasori's ears though, "Why do you get to pick one out?" He asked, scowling a little. What was wrong with his taste in cologne?

Yanking Sasori even closer, Deidara planted a kiss on the redhead's lips, "Because I'm the only one who should be smelling you when I get those perfect hugs, ya dork!" he laughed.

As Deidara pulled away with a bright smile, Sasori felt his knees almost buckle and his heart swoon in delight. He was wrong all along. There was nothing wrong with Deidara in the first place. Those braces actually meant nothing. The only thing that was missing when he met up with Deidara yesterday was the blonds radiant and wild smile.

And it was beautiful.

written for sasodei month 2017~

there will be a part 2 later on this month :) BYE LOSERS