A/N: So I woke up this morning with the full intention of working on one of my other stories that needed to be updated. But it was storming out like crazy! And I had some inspiration. Along with a strong urge to write with these two. This story just happens to be the result.

We are having a really stormy summer where I am... :P

Warning: Language, character OOC if you think so (probably right), slight violence...

Disclaimer: Don't own it, but love it to death.

^v^

"And whose idea was it to build a giant wooden castle in the middle of a lightning storm again?" Pein asked, staring at both his hospitalized art students.

Deidara and Sasori exchanged a glance from their opposite beds, the former bandaged from the arms down, and the latter wrapped around the forehead and chest.

"Well…" Deidara started to say, his visible blue eye gleaming in excitement. "You told us that you needed us to create something breathtaking for the art show next week un."

"So you decided to build a castle," Pein dryly said.

The blonde eagerly nodded. Although his hair had been let down from its usual half ponytail, his left eye remained covered by a long fringe on the other side of his face. And the bright pink hospital gown he had been forced to wear clashed with his hair. Apparently they had run out of boy's gowns and there was nothing else for him to put on.

Apparently.

Despite the fact that they pulled out a perfectly normal one for Sasori a moment later.

"It's a pretty big castle Pein," the redhead spoke up with a grin, his brown eyes wider than usual. "Or it was anyway."

Pein tiredly rubbed his brow, pulling up a chair to sit in between the two beds. "You idiots do realize that the responsibility for this falls on me, and I'll have to explain this to both your parents and the principal," he said. "So why don't you tell me what happened from the start."

Deidara cast Sasori a sidelong glance. "You can tell him."

"Really? I thought you might want to shout it all into his ear," Sasori said, looking away with a smirk.

"Shut up Sasori!" Deidara yelled.

Pein whacked the blonde over the head before turning to face his other student. "Okay. You can explain by all means."

Sasori looked at the heavily pierced face of his teacher and gave a slight nod. "It all started when you assigned us that partner project in art yesterday…"

Flashback To A Day Ago

Twenty-eight year old Nagato Pein stood in front of his rowdy art class, a hat filled with tiny strips of paper in one hand and a carving knife in the other. His brow twitched as the class bell rang and not one of his students made a move to stop talking. He waited until the second bell rang and then took a deep breath, vein in his neck threatening to burst.

"ALL OF YOU SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP BEFORE YOU END UP LIKE THE HALLOWEEN PUMPKIN I CARVED THIS MORNING!" he roared.

All talking immediately ceased, everyone sliding into their assigned seats without another word.

Pein nodded, setting his knife down on his desk before closing his classroom door and beginning to take role call. "Aburame."

"Here."

"Akasuna."

Someone waved their hand in the back.

"Akimichi."

"Here!"

"Haruno."

"Present!"

"Hoshigaki."

"Yeeaahhh."

"Answer normally will you?" Pein muttered, checking him off. "Inuzuka."

"Woof."

Pein shot him a sour look, reading the next name off the list. "Iwa."

"…"

"Iwa?"

"…"

Pein looked up, scanning the classroom with a pierced brow raised. Several heads turned as well, searching for the blonde teen who never missed an art class since the first day of school.

"Well where the hell is he?" a silver-haired boy whispered to the dark-haired kid beside him.

"How should I know Hidan? Stop talking to me."

"Damn! Just asking a fucking question bitch!"

Pein glared at Hidan. "Detention again. And stop bothering Itachi."

"Thank you sensei," Itachi intoned.

Hidan glowered at the both of them before going to bug the student on the other side of him. "Hey Kakuzu-"

"Shut up."

"Damn!"

Pein rolled his eyes, choosing to ignore the students in front of him. "So Deidara isn't here?" he asked in general.

"Oh he's here alright," a smug voice said from the very back of the class.

Everyone turned their head to look at the redhead who had spoken.

He never spoke. Ever.

Pein stared at him. "And how would you know that Sasori?"

Sasori shrugged lightly. "I have a feeling," he said before snickering.

As if on cue, a body slammed into the classroom door. They had obviously been running at full speed, judging by the distance they flew back when they realized the door was locked from the inside.

Pein walked over to the door, opening it slowly to stare at the body lying on the ground.

Everyone in the class strained their necks to see what happened.

Except for Itachi. He just sat there and muttered, "Baka…"

Pein blinked as his student pushed to his feet. "Deidara, what are you doing?"

The long-haired blonde growled something unintelligible, pushing his way past his teacher and stomping inside the classroom to point accusingly at a smirking redhead. "You! I'm going to kill you!"

Pein grabbed the charging blonde by the back of his school uniform collar. "You won't be killing anyone until you tell me why you ran into my door ten minutes late for class shouting death threats."

Deidara pulled himself out of his teacher's grasp, staring at him with unbridled fury. "Sensei-" he started to say. "That asshole Akasuna tripped me down the stairs and into a row of lockers on the way here un! I tried to get out but my shirt got stuck in the corner of some girl's lockers and I had to wait for Konan-sensei to come by and get me out!"

"Watch your language," Pein warned before looking at Sasori. "And you- this is the third complaint this week. If I hear it again you're going to the office."

Sasori didn't bother answering, he was laughing too hard to himself.

Pein gave Deidara a gentle push in the back. "Go to your seat. I won't mark you late this time."

"Thanks sensei," Deidara growled, adjusting his shoulder bag as he looked around the classroom for a place to seat. All the seats were taken except for in the far corner….

He scowled, making his way to the back of the classroom as his teacher finished taking role call. To his chagrin there was only one empty stool left. And who else would it be next to but the junior who shoved him into a locker, pushed him down the stairs, and stripped his dignity all at the same time? The scowl on his face deepened to such an extent that those watching him thought it might stay there for the rest of his life.

Or at least until he killed Sasori.

Sasori grinned as Deidara went to sit next to him, using his foot to hook around the bottom of the stool and pull it out just as the blonde went to sit down. Deidara went sprawling onto the floor and the students in the back burst out laughing.

Pein glanced at them as he went to put his attendance sheet away, inwardly sighing in exasperation. "Enough you guys. Another stunt Sasori and you'll be with Hidan in detention," he said.

Sasori merely smirked. "Understood sensei."

Deidara, red-faced in anger and embarrassment, grabbed his stool and sat on the farthest edge of the worktable he and Sasori shared, throwing his shoulder bag onto the ground. His backside was sure to have several bruises, and if he ever started to have back problems he'd know exactly who to blame!

"Now yesterday we discussed…" Pein began reviewing what the class had done the day before for those that had been absent.

Deidara was still scowling, staring at the front of the classroom but not really listening.

"Psst!"

"…"

"Psssssst!"

Deidara glanced to the side, eye narrowed in annoyance. "What do you want Madara?"

The brunette smiled at his obvious aggravation. "Well sensei mentioned us working in pairs today. You wanna be with me? It'll be fun and I'll let you choose what we make."

"What are you an advertisement?" Deidara muttered. "Depends on the project. You know that un."

"It's for the upcoming art show," Madara assured him. "We came in second place last year you know."

"Yeah… I know," Deidara said with a somewhat dark aura around him. He knew perfectly well because Sasori had decided to go solo and win first place with a beautifully crafted scorpion.

"Talking about the art show?" an amused voice asked.

Both Madara and Deidara looked over to see Sasori watching them, a smug look on his face.

Deidara looked away with a, 'Good grief,' while Madara lifted a brow and asked, "What's it to you?"

Sasori heaved his shoulders a little. "Oh nothing. Just thinking about how great my win was last year. My scorpion was amazing, wasn't it?"

"Only because it was the size of a goddamn bus," Deidara grumbled, flicking his eyes to the teacher who kept glancing back at them.

"Yeah- but it won didn't it?" Sasori let out a short chuckle.

Deidara felt an eye twitch.

"And it was a thousand times better than that clay bird you sculpted."

Deidara's head snapped to the side, visible eye flaming in anger. "Say that again you bastard!" he shouted.

Sasori lifted both brows in barely restrained amusement.

Madara tugged on his friend's pant leg. "Deidara…" he hissed. "Sit down."

Deidara blinked, just realizing that he had stood up in his fury and brought the class to a halt.

The class that was now staring at him and trying not to laugh.

Pein, however, looked anything but humored. "Would you care to repeat that last sentence Deidara?" he asked.

Deidara's face flared as he plopped back down onto his stool. "No sensei…"

Pein shook his head, instead gathering the class's attention by shaking the hat he had held in his hand since the very beginning of the class. "Listen up guys! The art show is coming up in about a week- and as you all know, the top three displays earn money. And who doesn't love money?"

There was particularly loud cheering from the front of the class.

"I'm winning this year!"

"That's what you said last year Kakuzu…" Kisame said with a sweatdrop.

Kakuzu turned narrowed eyes onto him. "I came close to third place…but you and Itachi beat me with your stupid submarine."

"Or submarine was not stupid," Kisame protested, looking offended.

Pein waved a hand to silence them. "Anyway, while the money prizes are the same, the way we'll be doing the show is not."

The class suddenly paid the utmost attention.

"Last year I allowed you guys to pick partners," Pein said. "But this year I want to see how well you work with someone you don't know as well as your friends. And I'm starting to believe all of you only have one friend since you pick the same partner every year," he muttered more to himself.

Itachi and Kisame glanced at one another the same time Hidan and Kakuzu did. Chouji and Shikamaru exchanged somewhat worried looks as Sakura and Ino pushed their lips out in anger; Tenten looking devastated as Neji sighed and averted his gaze. Towards the back of the room, Sasori looked angered at the prospect of actually needing a partner while Madara frowned in his teacher's direction.

Deidara was indifferent.

He liked Madara well enough- but it wouldn't kill him to work with someone else once in a while.

Hinata shyly raised her hand. "U-Um sensei…?"

Pein looked at her. "Yes?"

"How will we choose our partners then?" she asked, staring at the desk in front of her.

Pein smiled. "Glad you asked." He raised the hat he held. "I'll call you up randomly and then you'll pick a name from this hat. Whoever you get is your partner- and there will be no trading."

"B-But sensei!" a shaggy-haired brunette shouted. He stood, pointing to a student down the table from him. "Last time we chose from the hat I got Shino! He tried to kill me!"

Shino said nothing, pushing his sunglasses up on his nose.

Pein rolled his eyes in exasperation. "You tripping yourself down a manhole was entirely your fault Kiba. Shino just happened to be next to you."

"So you say," Kiba muttered, sliding back into his seat.

"Alright, alright," Pein shook the hat with a hint of a smile. "Let's begin."

~X~

-Five Minutes Later-

~X~

"Why the hell am I stuck with Itachi?" Hidan protested, glaring angrily at his teacher.

Pein rolled his eyes. "Because it's the name you chose. Now shut up and sit down. Shikamaru who did you pick again?"

"Sakura," the boy mumbled.

Pein wrote down the pair of names and then moved on to his next student. "Kiba," he called.

Kiba reached into the hat, eyes squeezed shut and lips moving as if he were uttering a silent prayer to himself. He pulled out a piece of paper, opened his eyes, and visibly blanched. "S-Shino….again…"

Pein patted him on the head. "Suck it up."

Kiba sulked a bit as he went back to his seat.

Pein motioned with a hand. "Sasori- you're next."

The redhead stood, and although Deidara was tempted to stick his foot out and trip him, he knew it would just come back and bite him in the ass.

Madara watched Sasori stop in front of Pein, his chin resting in his palm. "I hope we end up partners…" he murmured.

"Me too," Deidara said, more for his own sake than anything else.

Sasori reached into the hat slowly, humming a little under his breath.

For some odd reason, Deidara felt his gut drop and a feeling of dread come over him.

Sasori stepped back, looking very entertained.

Deidara didn't like the look he was giving him.

Pein lifted a brow. "Who is it Sasori?"

Sasori smirked, holding up the strip for all to see. "Deidara-kun," he mockingly cooed.

Deidara slammed his head onto his desk.

Pein was sympathetic, but not sympathetic enough to change partners. Instead he said, "There you have it class. That means Madara will be paired with Zetsu then. Meet up with your partners. I'm giving you the rest of the period to talk about what you want to do. Of course you can work after school hours, but the class time this entire week will be for the art show as well."

Sasori walked towards the back of the room as everyone else bustled around him to meet with their partners.

Madara patted Deidara on the shoulder as he stood. "Good luck with your partner," he said.

"I should be saying that to you," Deidara answered with a hint of sympathy. "Everyone knows Zetsu likes to take a bite out of all his partners hmm."

Madara raised a brow. "There's a kid named Zetsu in our class?"

"That's me."

Madara jumped. "Holy crap!"

Deidara rolled his eyes, turning around as a green-haired teen started dragging his screaming friend away. He reluctantly looked at who his partner was and let out a loud noise of disbelief.

It never hurt to have new partners.

But this one might just kill him.

-End Flashback From A Day Ago-

Pein blinked, staring at both Deidara and Sasori. The sun had long since gone down, leaving the three of them under the bright glow of the hospital light above. "That still doesn't explain why you guys are here," he said.

Sasori shrugged, opting to lie down rather than answer.

Pein looked at Deidara for an answer.

The blonde tugged irritably at the collar of his gown, eyes flickering to and fro as he began to talk. "Well we went back to my house after school to start brainstorming for ideas and…"

Flashback To After School The Day Before-

"Nice house."

"Shut the hell up Akasuna."

Sasori glanced at Deidara with a smirk as they entered the blonde's fairly large house. "I was being serious."

"With you living in a mansion down the street from me, I highly doubt that un," Deidara said, taking off his shoes at the door . He dropped his school bag by the coat rack on the wall while he was at it, waving for Sasori to follow him and not really caring if the other teen did or not.

Sasori glanced around the front hallway, taking in the paint-splattered walls and large amounts of sculptures and paintings decorated throughout the house. He could only assume that there was another artist in the house, because he knew for a face that Deidara couldn't paint to save his life. Having been in the same art class with the blonde for nearly two years had allowed him to see what talents the kid had. Drawing, sculpting, and thinking off the top of his head.

Painting, crafting, and planning details out- not so much.

Sasori wandered to where he had last seen Deidara vanished, walking through a semi-clean kitchen to a living room cluttered with cardboard boxes and canvases, some of which were drawn or painted on.

The teen felt his lips turn up, watching Deidara push aside a bunch of sketchpads off a coffee table in the center of the room and look at him expectantly. "I have to admire your obsession with art," he nonchalantly said, coming to sit on the other side of the table.

"It's not an obsession," Deidara said from in between his teeth.

Sasori purposefully made a show of looking around. "Really?"

Deidara exhaled heavily, looking as if he wanted to bash his head in. "Nevermind. Let's just get working on this project un. I want to win and I have no problem admitting you're a better artist," he grumbled.

"You flatter me," Sasori replied with a smirk.

Deidara felt a vein burst. "At least say thank you un!"

"So- have you thought of anything you wanted to do for the art show?" Sasori asked, getting straight down to business. He rested his elbows on the coffee table, propping his chin with his hands.

The blonde looked off to the side, a gruff expression on his face. "A sculpture of some sort. But it needs to be more intricate than it was last year," he said.

"If you knew it needed to be better, then why didn't you make it that way?" Sasori gave him an interested look. "Even I noticed it wasn't your best work."

Deidara tried to scowl at him but heard the hidden compliment inside the statement and let it go. "I didn't want to leave Madara out of it too much. It was a partner project after all un, and I didn't want to make him feel inferior to my talents."

Sasori grinned. "You have a big ego."

"Shut up!'

"So are your parents artists too?" the redhead questioned. He had never met a full family of artists before. Then again, he only remembered his grandmother being in most of his life so…

Deidara blinked at the question and then frowned, leaning on arm on the glass table and holding his cheek with a hand as he stared at Sasori. "My mom likes to paint and carve things un."

Sasori perceptively narrowed his eyes. "And your dad?"

"Died in a car crash five years ago with my little sister," the blonde said, not looking somber in the slightest bit, Though his visible eye said different. "He was a great painter though. And his sculptures were fantastic. My sister was…just learning to draw. She had so much potential…" Deidara wistfully trailed off before shaking his head and looking at Sasori. "What un?"

"Both my parents are dead," Sasori bluntly said.

"Inheritance?" Deidara murmured in question, referring to the other teen's living style.

"They were famous puppeteers and wood-crafters," Sasori told him. "Although, I think you'd already know this."

Deidara smirked a bit. "I knew your family name was famous. So who do you live with now?"

Sasori smirked back at him. "My grandmom. She continues to teach me new things every day."

"You're grandmom must be really skilled to have made you turn out like this," Deidara mused, stroking his chin in thought. "I can't imagine what you'll be like when you get older hmm..."

Despite himself, Sasori couldn't help but flush. People complimented him all the time, but hearing it from the same person within the time span of fifteen minute was a little bit much. There was only so much flattering a person could take. "Whatever… now back to the project…"

"Let me guess," Deidara said with a snicker. "You want to craft something humongous out of wood."

"You're a genius," Sasori replied with a roll of his eyes. "But I'm not sure if I want to do that this year."

"Huh?" Deidara looked surprised. "Why not?"

"Because storms have been on and off this entire month," Sasori said, pushing back from the table to lean against the sofa behind him. He looked past his partner's shoulder to stare at the black T.V. screen in front of him. "If it rains a week from now, the wood work would be damaged and ruin the entire project."

Deidara thoughtfully frowned. "Good point. Same thing for my clay," he said when Sasori lifted a brow at him. With a grin, he stood and grabbed the remote off the top of his television set, walking around to where Sasori was to turn on the large machine.

"Aren't we supposed to be working here?" Sasori said, unsure of what the blonde was actually doing.

"I'm checking the weather channel moron," Deidara said, flicking through the channels which were flickering in and out.

Sasori punched him in the leg hard. "Don't call yourself names."

Deidara huffed under his breath but didn't retaliate, searching for the weather channel instead.

The dull murmur of the T.V. filled the brief lapse of silence between them. A silence which was a heavy mix between awkward and comfortable.

"So…" Deidara said, trailing off at the end.

"So…" Sasori said back.

Deidara spared him a glance. "Why do you always trip me in the hall hmm?"

"You looked as if you needed a bit of fun," Sasori answered. "I was just giving you a push."

"A big push which could have broken a few bones," Deidara grumbled.

"You still look alive to me," Sasori smugly said. "And what's with your T.V.?" He stared at the television screen which was showing nothing but grey and black dots.

Deidara felt his brows turn in when all he received was static. "You have got to be kidding me un…" He threw the remote on the couch and started to head out the side door which happened to be right out the living room. "Stupid dish must have gotten screwed up again…"

Sasori followed the blonde outside his house more out of curiosity than anything else. "And what exactly do you plan on doing?" he asked.

Deidara scowled in irritation over his shoulder, walking to the side of his house where the rain pipe and gutter was. "I'm going to fix the satellite un."

"And you're doing this now why…?"

"Because I need to see what the weather will be like for the day of the art show. You said it yourself," Deidara muttered, beginning to climb up the rain pipe very carefully. He might have done the smart thing and gotten the ladder from the garage had it not been so far away. Besides, he had climbed onto the roof plenty of times before this way.

Sasori watched his partner scale up the side of his two-story house and balance himself on top the roof, searching the area for the tiny dish that would fix the reception of the television.

"There it is," Deidara uttered under his breath, seeing their small satellite dish tipped over and twisted around. He moved towards it, careful not to trip.

Sasori looked away in favor of studying his surroundings. Sure Deidara's house and backyard wasn't as big or as nice as his, but it had a really comfortable atmosphere to it. There was a large apple tree towards the back wooden fence with a wooden swing and a small pond off to the side. Maybe there were fish in there- he wouldn't know, nor would he go check. The grass seemed very healthy and green compared to the other lawns surrounding them, and there was a flower garden off to the side of the house.

All in all, it was homey.

Sasori stared at the pond's slowly rippling surface. He should really talk to his grandmother about getting a pet sometime…

"Hey!" Deidara suddenly shouted, causing Sasori to snap his head up.

The redhead scowled when he noticed nothing had happened to the blonde and he was simply lining the satellite dish up normally. "What are you yelling for?" he asked in a slightly annoyed voice.

Deidara raised a brow, catching the difference in tone. "What are you getting angry for?"

"Nothing," Sasori snapped. "What did you want?"

A grin spread across Deidara's face as he remembered what he had wanted to tell his art partner. "I had the greatest idea for our art display," he called down, voice slightly muffled as his head was bowed as he worked.

"You got an idea on your roof?" Sasori dryly asked.

"Yeah!"

Sasori watched the head of blonde hair lift and caught sight of the other teen glancing at him before he looked to the satellite again. "Well? Are you going to tell me or not?"

Deidara hummed a bit to himself, fiddling with the base of the satellite with his brows furrowed in thought. "I was thinking about using your wood crafting skills to make a big structure or something… And then I could sculpt around it to make it kind of life-like un. Maybe we could blow it up afterwards in a bunch of fireworks. Like my bird last year hmm."

"What? No way," Sasori said.

"Why not?" Deidara grinned, a gleam coming into his visible eye as he finished adjusting the satellite. "We could make history yeah! And everyone would get to see both of our talents!"

"No," Sasori flatly said.

"Just think about it un!" Deidara excitedly said, flinging his arms around as he stood. "It would be the biggest display there! We'd have to win the grand prize."

Sasori rolled his eyes, eyeing the way the blonde moved on the shifting tiles of the roof. "Fine, I'll think about it. Now hurry up and come down so we can actually start working on this thing." He'd never admit it aloud, but he felt uneasy watching someone flail around so recklessly on top of a house.

"Oh shut up un," Deidara said with a smile.

Now everything would have gone perfectly smoothly had it not been for the fact that Deidara tripped over the newly realigned satellite and started rolling off the side of the roof.

Sasori watched the blonde shout out a curse as he fell and then figured he ought to do something before the kid's mother came home and found her son lying dead on the grass below. He quickly moved forward and held out his arms so he'd be able to catch Deidara and break his fall.

Deidara went flying off the side of the roof, landing with a loud thud next to him.

Sasori blinked, arms still out, and then looked sideways out the ground where the blonde lay. "You can't say I didn't try," he said.

Deidara groaned, pushing his face into the grass beneath him as he attempted to sit up. "You…bastard…" he wheezed, wrapping an arm around his waist. Not only was his back sore from the staircase and locker incident at school, but now his ribs felt like they had caved in.

Sasori couldn't help but wince as Deidara pushed to his feet, only to fall back down on his stomach. Feeling somewhat responsible, he went to help Deidara up.

-End Flashback From After School A Day Ago-

Pein slowly blinked. And then sent Sasori a very accusing stare. "I should hope you helped him up," he nearly exclaimed.

Sasori raised his hands in his defense, having sat up again sometime in the middle of Deidara's story-telling. "Hey- how was I supposed to know he wouldn't fall directly into my arms," he said.

Pein sighed heavily and waved a hand at him. "Okay, okay, we'll drop it for now. So let me get this straight," he said, going back through everything he had heard so far in his brain. "You went out so Deidara could climb on top of his roof and fix the satellite dish," he glared slightly at the blonde, "and after he fell…then what happened?"

"I told Sasori to get me some aspirin for being such a prick and not catching me," Deidara grinned. "And an ice pack too."

"Treating me as if I were his servant," Sasori said in disdain. "It should have been the other way around."

"Well you didn't fall of a roof now did you?" Deidara snapped at him.

"Nor did I trip over a satellite I just fixed," Sasori snapped back. "It was all your fault anyway. The whole building a giant wooden structure idea. Now I'm stuck in the same room as you for the next two days," he muttered.

"So? It was your wood which got struck down and nearly killed us!" Deidara hollered at him.

"At least I didn't surround the damn thing with gunpowder!" Sasori yelled back.

"Not on purpose asshole!" Deidara screamed.

Pein clapped his hands over his ears. "BOTH OF YOU QUIET DOWN!" he roared.

The two teens immediately shut their lips, although that didn't stop them from glaring at one another.

Pein huffed loudly, dropping his arms and waving away the nurse that had come to check up on them. "I don't know what just happened," he said to his students, "but one moment you were civil and the next you're trying to deafen us all. Did I miss something here?"

Deidara jutted out his bottom lip before turning onto his side with a muffled, 'Ow,' and pulling his sheets over his head.

Sasori shook his head at the immature display and then looked at his teacher. "Well we started sketching out the ideas for what the big structure would be after Deidara was done being a pansy-"

"Screw you un."

"Language," Pein scolded.

"And we figured we might as well go for it all the way and make something so big the other art students just wouldn't be able to compete with it," Sasori continued saying. "We decided to go to my place because it had the wood supplies we would need. This time Deidara thought to go to his garage to get us a couple of bikes which we rode over to my house a few miles away."

Pein looked impressed. "I'm glad to know you two made it without any incidents."

"Yeah right," Deidara growled, throwing his sheets off his head to glower fiercely at the redhead. "He tried to push me into oncoming cars more than once un."

Pein felt an eye violently twitch, turning his head to stare at his apparently homicidal student. "Sasori… what the hell is wrong with you?"

"Language," Sasori teasingly chided before rolling his eyes. "I wouldn't let the brat get killed. But you should have seen how big his eyes got whenever he almost got run over!"

Deidara threw his arms up into the air. "Recommend that bastard to a therapist!"

"I'm thinking of sending you to one too," Pein grumbled lightly, eyeing the blonde. "Exploding every work of art you turn in classifies you as having some mental issue."

"It does not…" Deidara uttered.

Sasori lifted his eyes to the ceiling in good nature. "Well sensei, would you like to hear how we actually ended up here?"

Pein looked at him. "Please do enlighten me."

"Since Deidara's television was all jacked up," Sasori said, "we had no idea there was supposed to be a severe storm that night. And my grandmom wasn't back from work yet to give us any hint of a warning before we set to work out in my backyard…"

Flashback To Sasori's Very Big Backyard Which Doubled Deidara's-

"You have a stone garden un?" Deidara asked, carrying a few planks of wood in his arms as Sasori led him outside. The blonde glanced around the very spacious yard, appreciatively taking in the sakura trees and miniature river flowing through them as the sun began to set in the background. "You have a nice house…" he murmured.

"No need to tell me something I already know," Sasori smirked from in front of him.

"You prick!" Deidara shouted with a burst blood vessel.

Sasori sniggered, coming to a stop in front of a large pile of wood. There was a variety of planks in width and height, as well as shape and weight. "We'll follow the blueprints you sketched earlier and change things as we go. If we work for a few hours with no breaks, we should get the basic structure down."

Deidara carefully set down the wood he carried, wiping his already sweating palms on his white-washed jeans. "That's fine with me," he said. "Mom usually knows I don't come home until late."

Sasori looked at him, clad in a green shirt and cargo shorts. "You stay out and party huh?"

Deidara gave him a serious look. "Every night."

Sasori rolled his eyes and pulled out a toolbox from the mixed stack of wood before them. "Whatever you say. There's a hole in your shirt you know."

"What?" Deidara looked down, noticing that there was indeed a hole from where he had pressed the wood up against his chest. He frowned, tugging at his now torn blue beater. "I actually liked this…"

"Well you should have been more careful then."

"Oh hush un."

Both he and Sasori had changed out of their school uniform in their homes respectively and were now wearing clothes easy to work in. The air was beginning to feel a little humid and the clouds were altering color slightly, but neither thought anything of it. It was perfectly sunny at the start of the day after all.

Sasori walked over to him and placed a hammer and box of nails in his hand. "I wonder. Can I trust you to put together the base of this thing while I work on carving the pieces for the top?"

Deidara snatched the objects and stomped a few feet away. "I know how to handle tools Sasori!"

"Just making sure you won't hammer your hand to the ground with a nail," Sasori snidely said. He sat down on the grass and pulled a large blade from the utility belt around his waist. "Oh by the way-"

Deidara scowled and looked over at him, starting to form two triangles out of six planks of the same sized wood. "What?"

Sasori smirked, looking away. "I like it when you use my real name. Your other names wound my heart," he dramatically mourned, clutching the carving blade he held to his chest.

Deidara glowered. "You don't have a heart un."

Sasori laughed. "Whatever- Deidara."

"Stupid Sasori…" the blonde muttered to himself.

It was like this that the two of them set to work. Sasori looked away from his carving every now and then to see what Deidara was up to and found that the blonde wasn't so bad at carpentry- but it didn't mean he had to be nice about it.

"At least it's not crooked."

"Shut up un!"

They made small talk here and there, about teachers, classes, and other students.

"So our art teacher totally sucks," Sasori idly commented, forming a curved beam out of a plank of wood.

"Tell me about it," Deidara muttered. "Making us work together hmm."

"I know. Who told him it would be a good idea?" Sasori scowled.

"Hold on a second!" Pein interrupted, glaring at both his students. "You talk about me behind my back? And it's not even good things!"

Sasori chuckled. "You didn't even let me finish sensei. In fact, I don't think I'll tell you anything else."

"I was kidding Sasori," Pein told him.

The redhead didn't bother responded.

Deidara sighed loudly, drawing his teacher's attention to him. "I'll tell you what happened then. Okay so-"

"-our art teacher totally sucks," Sasori idly commented, forming a curved beam out of a plank of wood.

"Tell me about it," Deidara muttered. "Making us work together hmm."

"I know. Who told him it would be a good idea?" Sasori scowled.

The two paused in their work to glance at one another and laugh.

"Yeah right! He's one of the best teachers ever un!" Deidara said, not paying attention to the nail he was hammering in.

"I have no complaints about him," Sasori said. "In fact-"

"Fuck!" Deidara swore. "Shit- sorry for cursing."

Sasori waved it off. "What did you do?" he asked, brow furrowing.

"Um…" Deidara held up his hand with a sheepish grin, showing off his bleeding thumb. "Whacked it with a hammer."

"Good grief," Sasori mumbled, eyes lifting to the rapidly darkening sky. "Can you still use your hand?"

"It'll live," Deidara laughed, going back to connecting two planks. Only this time he kept a careful watch on what exactly he was hammering. "I wonder what everyone else is making…" he thought out loud.

Sasori shrugged. "It doesn't matter. We'll win."

"Good to see you're so confident un," Deidara said, chuckling a bit. "But seriously. Itachi and Kisame came close last year with their submarine."

"But now Itachi's paired with Hidan," Sasori reminded him. "The best they'll come up with is probably a dead body nailed to a board of wood."

"I wouldn't be surprised…" Deidara muttered, a dark aura forming around him as he remembered Hidan's insane attraction to blood and Itachi's tendencies to give other students panic attacks. He just hoped Madara was alright with that strange Zetsu kid.

It was quiet for about an hour, and now the two were setting up their wooden structure together. The outline was halfway done, rising thirteen feet off the ground and taking up twenty-five feet across. It was pretty good time if Sasori did say so himself. Usually if it was him alone, it would take double the time and then some. Deidara worked quickly and it benefited them both.

"Okay, so I brought some of my explosive power and fuses along with me," Deidara casually said as he handed Sasori a nail.

"Why did you bring it? You realize we won't finish this today, right?" Sasori was sitting up on a ladder, hammering one of his arced beams into the side of the wooden structure.

Deidara frowned. "Well I figured we might at the rate we're going un."

"Look-" Sasori leaned back a bit, staring down at him. "I realize you're really passionate about this project, and that's a good thing, trust me. But there is a such thing as food and sleep. The former which I have not eaten yet."

"Well just order take-out then," Deidara stubbornly said.

"With whose money?" Sasori dryly lifted a brow, accepting another nail from the blonde.

"I dunno," Deidara said with his visible eye narrowed. "Maybe yours, seeing how rich you are."

"That doesn't mean I can go around spending it freely!" Sasori hissed, giving the nail a particularly hard whack with his hammer. It might have been because he was envisioning a certain someone's head in its place, but it couldn't be proven.

"But I'm staying the night, right un?"

Sasori exasperatedly dropped his hammer to the other side of him so it wouldn't hit the blonde. "Did you just invite yourself to my house?" He brought a hand to his head and then looked at Deidara out the corner of his eye. "I hardly know you, just got partnered on a project with you today, and you're trying to spend the night just to work like a maniac on an art project."

Deidara crossed his arms, glaring at him slightly. "I want to finish this thing tonight hmm. You of all people should know what it's like to need to finish a work of art. Nothing will prevent you from working on it until it's done un!"

Sasori jumped off his ladder, dusting his hands on his shorts before staring up at the taller blonde. "I understand what you mean," he said. "But if we rush things our whole project could end up being ruined!"

Deidara continued to glare. "Fine."

"Well good then," Sasori couldn't help but snap back. He took in a deep breath, walking over the their diminishing pile of wood. "Our stock's almost gone anyway… Stay for dinner and when grandmom comes home she can drive you back to your house," he muttered. "Besides, she'll be angry if I brought someone over and let them leave without meeting her."

Deidara hung his arms slightly. "Alright, alright. What about my bikes un?"

"You'll get it when you come back over tomorrow," Sasori reasoned, turning around to face him. "Now let's start cleaning up."

~X~

Fifteen minutes later the humidity in the air had gone up twice its normal heat and the sky seemed oddly clouded over.

Sasori had gotten the yard back to its original state, with the exception of their large wooden outline that would soon turn into a castle. Now he gathered the last stray nails in one hand and stood to his feet, brushing his pants off with his free hand. His grandmother should be home within the next half hour, but he still hadn't eaten dinner yet…

"Hey Sasori!" Deidara called.

The redhead blinked at the sound of his name being called, turning around.

Deidara held out a leather pouch, grinning mischievously. "Check it out un."

"What is it?" Sasori wandered over, trying to figure out why the blonde was standing so close to their thirteen foot castle.

"I told you I brought gunpowder," Deidara said with a smirk. He motioned to the base of their structure. "Initially I said we should put it in the bottom of this thing, but I realized it might catch the grass on fire un."

"Well aren't you smart," Sasori sarcastically said as the blonde rolled his eyes.

"So I figured we should put it in tiny wooden cases near the roof when this thing gets finished," Deidara continued. "It'll explode wonderfully you know…" he said as he opened the pouch for Sasori to look inside of.

"Where did you get this stuff from?" Sasori questioned, looking into the small bag.

"Well my mom-" Deidara started to say, but was cut off when a surprisingly loud crash echoed into the area. Caught off guard, he tripped backwards over a spare plank of wood, bashing his head against their wooden structure. "Ow!"

Sasori went to help him up when another deep clap of thunder startled him into stopping his movements.

And without warning, it started to downpour. And downpour as if the floodgates of the heavens had burst open with no restraint. A wild wind picked up, causing his sakura trees to bend over and the small river to blow over the edge. The clouds gathered together in a thick gray cluster, rapidly changing to black.

"Where did all this rain come from?" Sasori wondered, feeling as if someone had dumped a bucket of ice cold water and ice onto his head. He snapped his gaze to Deidara who was feeling around the base of their castle. "What are you doing?" he shouted above the wind of the storm.

"I dropped my pouch of gunpowder un!" Deidara shouted back to him.

Those were not the reassuring words Sasori wanted to hear. "Oh my God- you're trying to kill us both," he deadpanned, hurriedly moving forward to yank the blonde to his feet. "We're going inside."

"Hold on a second," Deidara jerked away. "I can't just leave my explosive resources out here! It cost money!"

"It'll cost even more money to give yourself plastic surgery after it blows your face off!" Sasori yelled at him. "Now stop being an idiot and-"

He cut himself off, feeling the hair of the back of his neck and arms rise and tingle uncomfortably. His eyes grew wide as he felt the temperature drastically raise. Without another wasted moment, he tugged Deidara backwards.

"What are you-!"

"Get down!" Sasori knocked the blonde to the ground as the lightning struck their tall wooden structure. A loud rumble of thunder echoed across the pitch black skies, making it sound as if the sky was about to cave in on them.

Deidara's head collided roughly with the earth, vision blackening out for a moment before he realized someone was trying to talk to him and their artistic castle they had been attempting to build was on fire. His eyes widened and he tried to sit up, ending up bashing foreheads with Sasori who had yet to get off of him.

Sasori rolled off the blonde, holding his throbbing head. "Watch what you're doing," he muttered.

Deidara ignored him in favor of climbing to his feet and staring at their burning structure amidst the rain. "This…this is…" His feet sunk into the soggy earth.

Sasori sighed, getting up a bit more warily than Deidara had. "I know. Everything we worked on…"

Deidara whirled around to face him, hair plastered to his face along with a wide grin. "This is fantastic!" he yelled, throwing his arms up into the air with a slightly deranged laugh. "A work of art! Absolutely beautiful!"

Sasori stared, wondering for the blonde's sanity. "What?"

Deidara reached into his jean pocket, pulling out a digital camera. "I always walk around with this. Waterproof and amazing quality for something so cheap hmm." He made a move to approach their flaming creation but was stopped when a hand roughly pulled him back.

"Don't even think about it," Sasori warned, eyeing the rising flames which for some reason weren't being put out by the harshly falling rain around them.

"But Sasori-" Deidara protested, face dripping with water and eyes squinting. "If the wood's going to burn we should at least take pictures for our project, right un? It'll be real quick- then we can go inside and do whatever you want."

Sasori hesitated, unsure of what to say. But by the time he had formed some semblance of the answer, "No", in his head, Deidara had already broke out of his grasp and was standing dangerously close to the thirteen foot bonfire, snapping away as if he hadn't a care in the world.

Sasori, who wasn't getting any dryer, actually cared if he got sick and went to get his partner before he ended up getting killed. "Deidara, if you don't get over here right now I'll-"

Deidara turned around, shoving his camera back into his pant pocket with a smile. "I finished. No need to get all angry. Everyone knows lightning doesn't strike the same place twice un."

Sasori's brain didn't even have time to register a warning as another bolt of lightning cracked down from the sky, directly onto their magnificent burning castle. The flash of light hit the scattered gunpowder that had fallen out of Deidara's pouch, causing the wood to explode.

"Holy shit they lied to me!" Deidara shouted as they were blasted backwards.

"Dammit Deidara!" Sasori yelled.

-End Flashback From Sasori's Yard A Day Ago-

"That's pretty much how we ended up here," Sasori finished, lying sideways on his hospital bed and propping himself up with an elbow. He looked at his teacher for any signs of life, seeing how the older man had stopped moving quite some time ago. "Um…hello?"

"I think he's dead," Deidara commented from across the room. He had gotten out of his own bed to look out the large room windows, and now he was staring at what remained of the violent storm that had brushed through their city.

"Shouldn't you be lying down?" Sasori uninterestedly asked.

Deidara scoffed. "No. But seriously…I think I've seen a brick move more than sensei is right now."

Sasori smirked and then pushed himself off the uncomfortable hospital mattress, walking over to where the other teen stood. Luckily nothing other than their upper body had been burned, and the wounds weren't severe enough to leave gashing scars. He would have killed Deidara if that had happened. "I guess we'll have to start all over on our project now," he said.

Deidara glanced at him before laughing and sitting down on the edge of his bed. "I guess so. But how about we make something a bit smaller yeah?"

Sasori rolled his eyes. "Will do."

And suddenly, Pein snapped back to life, gaping at his students in a mix of horror and disbelief.

"You...You MORONS!" he yelled.

Deidara blinked in surprise. "Sensei?"

Sasori paged a nurse as the man began to scream his head off about how 'idiotic and stupid' his beloved art students were.

"Hello?" a woman's voice came through.

"Yeah, there's a crazy man in our room," Sasori said. "Could you have him escorted out please?"

"Right away."

Deidara snickered as a horde of security guards dragged their teacher out the room, looking at Sasori with wide eyes. "He's so going to get us back for that un," he said.

"I know," Sasori smugly said. "But it was funny, right?"

Deidara rolled his eyes, glancing back out the window. The dark skies had cleared up, revealing a clear night sky and full moon. His nose scrunched up for a moment, gaze honing in on a prominent flicker of color by the moon. "Hey Sasori…"

"What is it?" the redhead asked, plopping tiredly back into his bed.

Deidara grinned, pointing a finger out the window. "There's a fucking double-rainbow in the sky."

Sasori laughed in response, reaching to turn out the hospital room lights. "Well I should hope so after almost being blown to bits."

They were covered in a thin blanket of darkness, the light from the moon spilling into the room and onto the pale tile floors. There was a brief moment of comfortable silence before Deidara spoke.

"...Can we do it again once we get out?"

"Hell no."

A/N: And that is what my brain came up with. Took forever to write though :P

Feedback appreciated~