medli: yay! a saso-dei that's not depressing! this is kinda my apology for writing "wisdom of the dead". it made me sad... -cries-
gryph: yeah, that one was sad. you should talk to your other muse. make her stop giving you depressing ideas...
medli: sorry, she can't help it! that's her job! and i wuv her for it! so, there! -tongue-
gryph: -sigh- anyway, medli does not own the cast of naruto, which makes her very sad... however, she does now own naruto's funny walrus/thing sleeping hat that she refuses to take off... at all...
medli: GLEEEEEE!!! -dances around happily in her awesome new hat- XD

Cloud Nine

Sasori and Deidara were going on a mission. Unfortunately, it was one of those steal-the-obscure-scroll-on-the-other-side-of-the-world kinds of missions. Needless to say, it was very far away; Snow Country to be exact, and, since mister high-and-mighty Leader-sama was in a bad mood, they were only given a week to get there, obtain the scroll, and get home. If they didn't, then they both forfeited their two days of remote privilege to Tobi. The prospect of watching nothing but bad black-and-white horror flicks and cheesy cartoons for a whole week made them both shudder.

They had the rest of the day to prepare, so they went up to their shared room to pack. Deidara made sure he had plenty of good clay and spare cloaks. And his hairbrush; he'd only forgotten it once, but when he had, he'd been nearly frantic until his partner had finally bought him a new one. When he was done, he draped himself across Sasori's bed with his head hanging upside-down off the edge, watching said red-head finish his own packing. After doing a last check of his puppets and storing them back in their scrolls, Sasori joined the blonde, who had sat up and was now leaning back against the wall. He sat in his partner's lap and relaxed into the tall man's chest when long arms were wrapped around him.

They just sat there for several minutes, enjoying the simple closeness before Sasori sighed and said, "I can't think of a single way to get to Snow Country and back in a week."

He tilted his head back to look at Deidara and saw that the explosives artist was frowning at the opposite wall.

"Hnn… I can't ei-… Oh, wait, un!" The blonde brightened as he thought of something. "My clay! I'll make a really big bird this time so we'll both fit on it! Then, we could fly there, get the scroll, and come back in just a couple of days, un!" He grinned down at Sasori, but faltered a little when he saw the puppet-master's sour expression. "Um, Sasori-danna?"

"No", said the red-head flatly. "There's no way I'm getting on one of those things. Not for all the damn scrolls and remote privilege in hell." Deidara pouted.

"Aw, Danna. But, flying is fun! You never know if you like it or not until you try it, un", he cajoled, sounding like a parent trying to get a child to eat a new food.

"No. I know very well that I would not enjoy it."

"You've never flown before, so how would you know? Pleeease… un?"

Sasori sighed and pulled himself out of Deidara's grip, turning around so he could look the blonde in the face.

"If people were meant to fly, then they'd have wings. Since we don't, I'm going to assume that we were not meant to speed through the air and that defying nature is probably not a good idea."

Deidara gave his partner a look, crossing his arms and stating firmly, "Well, nothing's ever happened to me and I've been flying around for a long time, un. Besides, you have wings."

This time it was Sasori who gave his partner one of those looks. He crossed his arms and said, "Firstly, Deidara, I put those 'wings' there myself; and they're not really 'wings'. They're more like blades that happen to look like wings; they're for fighting only and I can't fly with them." He uncrossed his arms and leaned in slightly to make his point, staring intensely at the blonde. "Secondly, just because nothing has ever happened before, doesn't mean this time will be the same." He shuddered slightly. "In fact, it actually makes it more likely that something will happen and we'll both fall to our deaths."

"Danna, you're just being paranoid. If I didn't know better, I'd say you were afraid to fly, un." Deidara grinned mischievously when Sasori didn't respond to that. "Ha-ha! I knew it! You're afraid of heights, un!"

The explosives artist nearly cackled when his partner glared at him. "I am NOT afraid of heights. It's just… not right for people to be that far above the ground."

The blonde sensed that his Danna's argument was getting weaker. He reached out and pulled the red-head in closer so that his face was nestled in the curve of Sasori's neck. He nuzzled it and kissed him softly up the side to his ear. The puppet-master 'hmm'-d his pleasure and leaned into the gentle caresses, a slight smile quickly erasing his frown.

Breathing lightly in his ear, Deidara cajoled seductively, "Please, Sasori-danna? For me? Just this once, un? Besides…", he nipped lightly at the puppet-master's ear, making his lover gasp slightly and groan when a stray hand made itself known underneath his shirt, "it's the fastest way to travel, un. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can get back. And then…"

Deidara abandoned his Danna's ear and took his lips instead; gently pushing the red-head back onto the bed while filling the kiss with as much promise of things to come as he could. When they finally broke apart, they were both panting slightly and a flush stained their cheeks.

"Fine… we'll fly… on your damn… bird. But just… just this once…"

Deidara grinned happily and kissed him again. The rest of the night was spent in a detailed examination of Sasori's body, making sure that every inch was ready for the journey tomorrow.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The next day:

"Urgh, Deidara, how the hell did you manage to convince me that this would be a good idea," groaned Sasori.

The puppet-master was currently clinging to the back of his partner's cloak to avoid having to look at the landscape below them that was passing much too quickly for his liking. He kept his eyes squeezed shut tightly so he wouldn't become more nauseous than he was already. As it was, he probably would have lost his breakfast all over that pretty scenery a long time ago if he had not had the fore-sight to skip that meal.

"I'm sorry, Danna. I didn't think you would take it this badly, un."

Deidara had been the happiest man on earth. Not only was he back in the air for the first time in what felt like forever, he had managed to seduce, er, convince his lover to join him. He had been so happy, he could have done loops in the air; but he held back, knowing that they probably would not be appreciated so much by his red-headed partner. This did not, however, restrain him from talking almost non-stop about how great it was to glide through the air compared to trudging along on the ground; he spoke about everything from the view to the mechanics of flight. Yes, the blonde had truly been on cloud nine.

Unfortunately for him, but luckily for Sasori, he'd finally noticed the red-head's air-sickness. After that, the ride went a lot more smoothly; Deidara stopped swooping around just for the heck of it and started paying more attention to the air currents that would toss them around a bit. He felt kind of bad for dragging the poor puppet-master on a trip he had never wanted to go on in the first place; promising fun and then turning out to be no fun at all. No one could really appreciate the beauty of the skies when they were concentrating on not losing the contents of their stomachs.

When they finally set down for the night, Deidara could tell that Sasori was having a hard time restraining himself from kissing the earth under his feet. They set up a simple camp; fixed a light meal and lay down to rest. As they lay together, on the ground, Deidara wrapped securely in his Danna's embrace, the blonde felt a little uncomfortable; he wiggled around so he could face the other.

"Um, Danna?" He fidgeted a little with a piece of his hair.

"Hn?"

"Ah, you're not mad at me, are you, un? For making you travel like this?" He met his partner's eyes a little nervously. He needn't have worried though; the eyes that met his held only love and a little amusement; not a trace of anger.

Sasori smiled a little lopsidedly, "No, I'm not angry. It's not really that bad. I think if I can get over the air-sickness, I might actually like it someday." He smirked, "But, until then, I'm taking comfort in the fact that it is a fast way to travel, so the mission won't be too lengthy and I won't have to endure it much longer."

Deidara mock-pouted when heard this, then smiled a little sadly.

"I was really hoping you would like it, though, un. I wanted you to understand just how wonderful it feels to be so free up there in the sky. It's like…like… I dunno, un. It's like the world becomes a better place where everything is perfect and you don't have to worry about anything, 'cuz you're so caught up in just the sheer bliss of it…un…" He looked up at the puppet-master with an almost pleading look, desperately trying to get the other to understand.

Sasori looked at him for a moment with an unfathomable expression in his eyes. Then he smiled and brought a hand up to caress his lover's face, gently.

"I understand," he said quietly. "You feel like your soul is being filled completely; you could never be unhappy again as long as you have just that memory of the thing that makes you feel that way.

"D-danna? How, un…?"

"My cloud nine is right here, on the ground, with you. As long as you're with me, I'm happy."

Deidara blushed lightly as Sasori leaned in to steal a kiss. As the night crept quietly past, they began to drift to sleep. The last thing Sasori heard as the velvet sky stole his consciousness was a quiet voice murmuring into his shoulder.

"Me too… Sasori…"

With a smile on his lips, he slipped into the warm darkness of sleep, where his heart took flight to cloud nine.

medli: awww... cuuute!
dei: -blush-
medli: i'm sorry you two are so out of character, but you're just so cute together and i was compelled by gryph to do a fluff-moment!
sasori: hey, i thought you didn't like this kind of stuff?
gryph: well, medli finally managed to convince me that shonen-ai was good. i'll let her and her other muse have all the yaoi...
medli and dei and sasori: -smirk-
sasori: oh, but we love corrupting virgin minds...
-LOTS OF SMEX-SOUNDS-
gryph: NOOOOO!!!! mah, virgin eyes!!! X0
medli: mwahahahaha!!! PLEASE REVIEW OR I CONTINUE TORTURING THIS POOR GRYPHON WITH SMEX!!! XD (not that that would be particularly unpleasant for the rest of us... XD)