Our first meeting was not like I had imagined it.
But when I say first meeting I suppose I should clarify which first meeting I mean. I guess in truth our first meeting was in Suna when he had kidnapped Gaara and I had killed his partner Sasori.
I didn't know it at the time but apparently that day I busted down that giant rock I had caught his eye, I later learned he liked things that go boom. Apparently, like Sasori, he fancied himself an artist, his favoured medium being explosive clay. I can't say today I agree with what he calls art but I will admit that an explosion does catch the eye, be that from beauty or horror or maybe both I could still argue.
But I don't mean that first time, as valuable as it was seeing as it lead me to today. I mean the meeting were we met as equals, and partners in the Akatsuki. I won't tell anyone save for the leader why I joined, call me everything you want: Traitor, Cunt, lying bitch. It doesn't really hurt anymore or even matter.
But one thing nobody will call me is weak.
But Im getting off topic with my thoughts again, there is simply so much to relay that I forget myself.
Our first meeting was when Pein had summoned Deidara and informed him personally that I was to be his new partner. In that moment after he heard this and remembered who I was I couldn't help but be reminded of Naruto. He looked eager to lose his old partner yet annoyed and offended because of who his new one was. Expressive as Naruto but much quieter and mature, I also doubted I'd have to mother him like I did Naruto, a chore I still miss today.
When we left Pein's office afterwards he gave me a dark glare. To which I laughed at and confused him. I didn't mean to laugh mind you, but his version of a glare looked more like a child being ordered to do something he didn't want too and it was too funny. Im sure anyone else would jump clear of him but after dealing with Uchiha glares for most of my life and Lady Tsuande glares his was pitiful and hilarious to me.
"The hell are you laughing at you damn woman, un?" he said looking baffled and annoyed.
"You," I replied and kept walking, he looked ready to swing at me until I said "You looked so much like Naruto when I tell him to eat his vegetables I couldn't help myself."
He paused and looked me over, assessing me "Why are you even here?"
"Reasons," to which was my sole reply.
When had a week at the base together, which I spent dealing with Itachi's eyes. For a mass murder he was sweet in his own way. Quiet and introverted but weren't everyone in his family? Still By the third visit we were having conversations about his eyes and various jutsu's, and even cooking which was a oddity. Who knew he liked to cook?
Deidara would often show up but he wouldn't say anything. Just watch what I was doing trying to look bored when I looked his way but even Itachi could tell he was interested. Not in me mind you, not at the time but more in my skills.
Eventually I got him to talk when I had him on a cold metal table to look at where his arms had been reattached.
"So if you're done trying to act like its subtle that your analyzing everything Im doing do you mind telling me what your thinking?" I asked briskly as I looked at the connection.
"…." There was nothing until he sighed " Im intrested."
"In?"
"None of your business." He said quiet snappily I might add.
"On the contrary if it has something to do with me it is totally my business." I retorted back.
"And if I still refuse?"
"I'll pin you down and blindfold you while I finish this."
"Kinky."
"Wow really? That…that was just plain sad." I said looking up at him "I honestly expected better."
He gave me that annoyed look and I returned it with a cocky one.
"Damn it….fine, un." He sighed "I was watching your technique because.." he trailed off and looked to the right, which meant he was thinking up something creative. Probably a lie.
"Your looking to the right Deidara, a signal your trying to think up something creative, most likely a lie. Not a smart idea seeing as how I can give that wall and implant which would be your body." I said proudly.
"See that's just it!" he said his eyes snapping back to me, well really it was just one eye but you get the idea. "You punched down a solid rock wall, you and an old crone killed Sasori and Im well aware of how…explosive your strength and temper is!" he said getting excited.
"Its freaking art! Yet at the same time here you are able to delicately put tiny blood vessels so small that blood cells have to move through one at a time back together again. Its breathtaking." He finished looking right into my eyes. I'd be lying to say I was extremely flattered and extremely creeped out at the same time. I wasn't sure if I wanted to be compared to his freakish idea of art.
"Ummm…thank you?" was the best I could muster.
"Sakura I don't think you understand-" why did I enjoying hearing my name coming from him in that instant "- you're a living piece of art. I know Sasori wanted to turn you into a puppet. I'll tell you right now Im glad he didn't, it would ruin the true artistic value you have!"
I just stood there as he went from a trickling stream of words to a raging waterfall of them in less than a minute. "Deidara, really, calm down this is…this is a little weird for me to be being called art constantly. Don't get me wrong compliments are nice but this feels like a bit much-"
"Much? Sakura I don't think you understand. You're a living master piece!"
Okay I had enough.
"Deidara please leave." I said feeling way to awkward now.
"No."
"..Excuse me?" I said now annoyed.
"Im not leaving." He said again. Looking right into my eye with totally seriousness.
"I think otherwise." I said and sent him flying out the door with my enhanced strength. He laughed when he landed and looked at him with that smug smirk I quickly learned made me blush.
"See? Pure explosive art!" he laughed.
I grit my teeth and stormed away, which only made him even more satisfied and pissed me off more.
It was after that he would find reasons to get me mad, little and big, anything to make me explode and smash something of even him. Our sparing was no different, he loved to see me turn anything into rubble or light up my temper in an instant. But to be honest with myself something about that smug smirk of his had a habit of turning me on.
One day when I was moping around he showed up and jst watched me. I expected him to antagonize me but he just watched me sit on a couch and sigh, staring at an old picture of team 7 when we were genin. He eventually walked over and took a seat next to me, looking at it himself.
"Is that your team?" he asked studying it.
"Yeah, back when we were Geinin." I sighed for the thousandth time "Back in the easier days." I smiled at this, the nostalgia sweeping over me.
"You don't look like much…even less then now." He remarked, taking the photo from my hands.
"I wasn't much, I used to like to think back then I was a big help but honestly it didn't take long for me to learn I was terrible. Naïve and clumsy with my head in the clouds." I smiled "One of our first missions was to the Land of Waves, we though it'd be a C rank but it turned out to be A rank in the end. We had a run in with Zabuza Momochi."
"I know the name. Can't say I ever met him though but Kisame might know him." He said looking at me now.
"That was the mission we learned to climb tree's the ninja way." I laughed "I mastered it before the boys but I had no endurance and tired faster. Then again…my goal back then was shallow and childish, I didn't have any real passion back then. It was only after the Chunin exams that I really started to blossom as Ino called it."
He didn't say anything but let me continue.
"She said when we were little and people picked on me for my large forehead that I was a flower yet to blossom, I like to think I've blossomed now but at the same time I don't want to think I have completely, because that would mean I reached my limit. I'm not going anywhere and part of the reason I join the Akatsuki was to come into my own more."
He nodded and looked back to the picture "I recognize the Copy Cat ninja Kakashi. One of the best Sensei you could have really, the blond I assume is Naruto. And the dark haired one screams Uchiha." He said with distain.
"Yup, Kakashi sensei and Tsunade sensei are the best I could have ever asked for. One taught me ambition and helped me through a tough time with the team, the other gave me the power and knowledge to match the ambition. Naruto….he's still loud and annoying but he's like a brother to me. And then theirs Sasuke." I said with a sigh and hung my head.
"Is that bastard why you're moping? I expected better from you." He said giving me a look of scorn.
"No no, it's just whenever he comes to mind I remember all the trouble we went through with him. I remember my stupid crush and all the wasted time I had chasing that fool." I said with a groan.
"Really? You had a crush on that?" he said flicking the image of Sasuke to show his point.
"Yeah yeah tease me all you want it won't change the past. I'm over him now rest assured." I waved him off "To be honest…I suspected at times he did care but his own ambition drove him down a dark path. Even so he always regarded me with coldness; even Itachi is warmer than he was." I laughed.
"Coldness? So what your saying is, even in theory, you showed him love and warmth, and he supposedly cared for you too but all you ever got in return from the one guy you liked, as poor a choice as it was, was coldness and I can only imagine distain?" he said giving me a new kind of serious and annoyed look although the annoyance didn't feel directed at me.
"..Yes?" I said not sure what he expected.
He tossed the picture on my lap and growled in annoyance. Walking off I watched him leave and didn't know what to think of it. Had I offended somehow?
I must not have for after that conversation he regarded me completely differently. He didn't antagonize me anymore, or at least he did it less. Instead I found that he was being welcoming and warming to me. In fact he was at times being downright romantic. I didn't know what to say really, how knew the pyromaniac could be a sweet romantic?
I later learned that in his old village this sort of behavior was customary when a man wanted to court a woman. We considered it on the more frivolous side of courting and something far more formal in Konoha. But where he was from it was normal and expected from any man. The compliments turned less creepy like in the medical room and more personal and kind. Bringing butterflies to my stomach every time. He would give me little gifts and go out of his way to help me or deliver any form of comfort.
When I got melancholy about my home he'd cheer me up one way or another, often with a hug or sometimes even flowers. In battle he wouldn't tell me to stay back per say, such a thing he knew would piss me off royally, but he'd frequently rush ahead to start the fight when he could and stuck fairly close to me. Enough that it respected me but still went out of his way to make sure nothing happened to me.
Heavens know how he figured out when my birthday was but he knew all the same and treated me to dinner and bought me a new pair of gloves for fighting. When spring came around and Rain country had their festival he somehow got Pein to put off our mission so we could go. Although I suspect Pein and Konan had gone themselves.
It was at the spring festival we shared or first real kiss, not a peck on the cheek like I had given to him before but a real one. It was also that same day we slept together for the first time, call it rushing but the time felt right. He defiantly proved those mouths on his hands could do more than just mold clay. He looked downright sexy with his hair down and running down his back and over his shoulders. The pulse of heat emanating from his body and the rhythm he kept steady. It was also the night I learned I had a huge biting fetish, and he learned how much that smug attitude turned me on. He used it to his advantage after he had finished and rolled off of me, only to 10 minutes later when I was ready to fall asleep put on that smug smile as he watched me and he got his wish of a second round.
He'd use it on training, on missions, whenever he wanted to 'play dirty' he'd use that smug smile. I don't know what it was about it but it made me want to pound him in more ways than just with my fist. It was funny however when Hidan figured it out and tried to se it on me, and when I blushed Deidara was ready to blow him to bits. It was cute and endearing watching him get protective of me in that sense.
After a month or so when my hair got long again I was about to cut it when he stopped me and told me to leave it at that length. I told him it wold only get in the way and he responded with "Just pull it back like Itachi does. It looks beautiful like this."
I laughed "Artistic even?" I joked.
"Yeah," he said in all seriousness. I ended up pulling it back after that, I didn't have the heart to cut it.
A year after that, when we were sharing a room, he informed me that he had gone an bought a house.
"You what?" I asked a bit dumbstuck.
"I bought a house for us in the canyons." He said with a smirk that was borderline smug.
"For us? Why didn't you tell me about this earlier, much less see if it was okay with me to move to the canyons? What about the Akatsuki?" I asked a bit ticked.
"Well…okay it's a bit complicated. You see its actually a compound the Akatsuki own. But currently it's in my possession, I still owe Pein a fair amount but the rest is being paid off in another form." He admitted.
"Im listening.."
"Currently its going to be a base for Konan…she's pregnant and Pein wants her away from all this. He doesn't want to risk the baby. So your new mission is to go and stay with her, help with the birth and all."
"Okay now this is making more sense." I said stretching my back.
"Itachi will also be there, he is to be taking leave there after his surgery on his eyes. But that's not the biggest thing about all this.." he said his tone turning nervous.
"…yes?" I said halting mid-stretch to look at him warily.
He walked up to me and wrapped his arms around my waist, moving in really close and pressing his forehead to mine. "Sakura I…I would…" he sighed multiple times trying to think of what to say. My heart was racing and mind galloping as I could tell what he wanted to ask but couldn't find the words myself.
"I'd like to…to maybe start a family with you..?" he said more nervous then I had ever heard him before "To get married and start a family with you.."
"Deidara…this is…" I was speechless but when I say the fear of rejection crawl into his eyes I jumped on it "I'd love to..what mean to say is yes or….well you get the idea." I said a huge smile growing on my face.
He practically yelled with joy, I'd swear he was happier then me! And we're he any stronger the hug to follower would've broken my ribs.
There was no huge wedding ceremony, no flowers for frivolous means for the wedding. It was merely an exchanging of rings and a wordless understanding. He told me long after the fact he wished it could've been more gawdy but we both knew that wasn't possible in our careers.
Konan had a healthy baby boy. Her and her son are still here 5 years later at the compound. Trainning her son to be a shinobi while Pein ran the show. Itachi is in the field again but now I have a grumbling Kisame here. The compound had becoming something of the main members reclusive. Whenever somebody was badly wounded they were brought here. And whenever a kid was fond to be trained to be an Akatsuki they were brought here. Deidara is here now on leave after or own daughter was just born. I have a strong feeling she's going to be a Daddies little girl. Even now I look over from this parchment telling my story and see him laying asleep on his back with his newborn daughter laying asleep on his chest, a full head of pink hair already set. Where it not for the fact all newborns are born with blue eyes I'd say who she takes after their but it'll be awhile yet before their real color sets in.
And so I end my story here, with my new family. I don't know who will find this in the future, but for heaven's sake let it not be Hidan. I'll never here the end of it.
