"I'll make a exception just this once cause it's your birthday. Got it?"

"Yessssss! Drink drink drink drink! Yeah!"

Several drinks later deep into the night. Sasori was leaning on one side of the couch, sloshing a cup of whiskey on the rocks around. A light shade of pink warmed his cheeks but he wasn't drunk, he was responsible adult. He grinned and turned his attention to his smashed minor.

Deidara was sitting on the ground, the couch behind him and his face pressed against the glass coffee table littered with various bottles of alcohol. The glass cooled his heated cheeks, he didn't deny he was very drunk.

"I think you've had enough for tonight. Time for bed." Sasori said to the blond he took in just few months ago from the orphanage, officially becoming his legal guardian.

They had a interesting relationship, Sasori first became Deidara's art teacher two years ago. In the beginning there was a lot of fighting, arguing, detentions and several trips to the principle's office. At some point Sasori saw that it wouldn't change anything, and Deidara saw that his teacher was actually a freaking amazing artist and started to respect him. His view on art was still wrong though. Through spending hours of class, detention and TA sessions, Sasori became his mentor as Deidara's dreamed of being a artist. The redhead did recognize that his student was very talented, a rare one who was deeply passionate about art. They fought a lot but still got along at the same time. Due to the long periods of time spending together Sasori noticed a few things about his pupil, he was a orphan, underweight, and sometimes came to school with some bruises here and there. Of course, Deidara would just laugh it off when he questioned his injuries claiming that he was just clumsy, forgot his lunch money and so forth.

Sasori had enough when Deidara came to school one day with a broken arm and black eye. Deidara may be a pain in the ass but he cared enough for the kid to do something about it, he rarely cared about anything. Determined to find out what was going on, he used his teacher card and found the address to his pupil's house. His 'home' was the orphanage downtown which was a pretty old building holding way too much kids than it should. The redhead walked into the old building and impatiently waited for the receptionist to finish her 'important' chat with a friend over the phone. The lady eventually hung up and led him to meet with the head of the orphanage, a half drunk woman who seemed to be curing her hangover with more alcohol.

Somehow Sasori was able to pull out information about his blond student from the woman. Deidara was most likely being bullied by the older kids in the orphanage.

"Why does a simple teacher from school care so much huh?" The woman asked. "Why? You wanna adopt him or something? He only has two more years until his legal to leave this dump." Aka, two years until they can kick him out of this dump where he will have nowhere else to go and would have to struggle and live in the streets. No, just no. Deidara had way too much potential, it shouldn't be wasted in streets. So he spontaneously made a decision.

"Assuming that this building is holding more than it can, the lack of financial support from the government and your excessive drinking habit, no one would mind if I take him off your hands."

The woman's half lidded eyes seemed to suddenly hold a sharpness at his words. "You're implying that you want to be his father?"

"No. I refuse to be called his father, I am implying that I will be his legal guardian." Will be, so he is determined to get his student out of here no matter what.

The woman laughed. "You know, it's hard taking care of a building of almost 200 kids. It may not seem like it but I do care about where they go before their legal. In order to adopt a kid the parent-ahem- legal guardian would have to go through weeks of testing, and background checks. But, you know, Deidara talks about you, well more like complains about you but that's just him showing that he cares about what you think of him. He kind of reminds me of another kid named Naruto, sound familiar?" Yes, Naruto was a student in his class last year who wouldn't shut up about finally being adopted by a man named Iruka, the history teacher.

"You're the first person to acknowledge him. I guess you being here shows that you're serious about this."

"He has potential and I won't let it go to waste. I will make sure he graduates and go to university even if I have to drag him. Where do I sign." Sasori deadpanned.

The woman laughed again. "You know I can make you go through the whole process of checking whether your a compatible and responsible guardian right?"

"But you won't."

She smiled and pulled out several forms and a pen. "I won't. But if Deidara says no, it's a no."

After signing the papers, she called for her assistant to call for Deidara. Deidara was not pleased that his teacher was here and was shocked at the forms presented to him.

"We only need your approval and you can be off your merry way to your new home."

"I don't want this dickhead to be my dad, yeah!"

"If you ever call me dad I will shave off all your hair gag you with it."

Deidara believed him and sighed in relief when the redhead said that he will simply be his legal guardian and will be living under his household.

"Tsunade, he's going to kill me as soon as I step into his house, yeah." Yet he signed the forms and went off to pack what little possessions he had.

The first ten minutes of the drive to the redhead's house was quiet and a bit tense. Deidara was the first to break the silence.

"I wasn't being bullied by the others in the orphanage, yeah." Sasori spared him a quick glance and stayed quiet allowing him to continue. "Some guys in the streets often approach the soon-to-be-legal guys in the orphanage to make them sell drugs and 'hire' them to do small errands for them…..I said no." And they don't like it when they say no. "But I'm glad I did." The rest of the ride was silent but relaxed. Neither noticed the other holding a small smile.

Don't you dare pull a stunt like Naruto. No need to tell the whole world about this.

I wouldn't even dream about it, yeah.

They got along relatively well.

Four months later, here we are back again with two drunken men on the blonde's 16th birthday. Sasori took a sip of whiskey and Deidara leaned back against the couch, head bowed drowsily. His usual half pony tail was loose, a golden curtain of hair covered his face from Sasori.

"You know how I said I don't remember any of my past before the orphanage?"

Brown eyes caught his attention and let out a 'hmm' in reply.

"Well, I lied…..My parents weren't married. They were just a couple who stayed together, helping each other out just to survive. Who knows, maybe they had some affections for each other, but I wasn't suppose to happen. I'm just a...mistake, I guess."

Sasori closed his eyes, he wanted to say something but he couldn't seem to find the right words. So he stayed quiet and allowed the blond to continue.

"It's not hard to believe that they were not happy with the result but for some reason they kept me. They tried to play house, acting as if they were having a 'normal' life like everyone else. Two parents with a kid that they didn't want. Of course, it didn't last long. Dad often got drunk and became abusive, he would beat me or my mom, yeah...usually me." His voice cracked a bit, taking a deep breath he continued.

"One day my dad got really drunk, beat both of us, and left the house. I was laying on the floor, facing the ceiling. The yellow light flickering occasionally and my mom was sobbing a few feet away from me. I was so tired, yeah…..and I guess my mom was too." This time a sob escaped from the blond. "The next thing I knew was that I couldn't breathe. She was above me, covering the flickering light with her bloodshot eyes, her hands around my throat. I tried to push her off, but how the fuck can a kid overpower a adult!?" This time there was anger in his voice. "I remember everything, every last damn detail, it stuck in my memory and I can't erase it! Her hands were cold, the door was open and the room smelt like a drug house! She said that it was all my fault! She said if I'm gone everything will be better! She fucking said that she was doing me a favor! Well fuck that! It's not my fault!? It's their fault that they couldn't a put a fucking condom on! It's their fault for keeping me instead of leaving me in the hospital-!" A hand clasped Deidara's shoulder, Sasori had moved to sit up on the couch beside him. He silently waited for the blond to calm down, he needed this, Deidara needed this.

"It's not..it's not my fault, yeah…." He took another deep breath. "Apparently our new neighbor across the hall was new to this place and found the yelling worrisome. They called the police who found a mother choking her six year old son to death." He chuckled. "Mom ended up in jail, I have no idea what happened to my dad and don't give damn, and that's how I ended up in the orphanage!" He ended in a eerily cheery voice.

"Haha...hah...welp, that is the story of my fucked up life." Deidara moved to get up. "Good night, yeah."

Before he could get up, Sasori slipped down to sit on the floor beside him and pulled him back down towards him. He saw his student's face for the first time before his sob story began. His eyes were red and tears were quietly slipping down his face. Sasori would admit that he sucked at comforting people but this was a responsibility he willing took. He pulled his 16 year old student until his head rested against his shoulder and kept a firm grip around his back. It wasn't a very comfortable position but they didn't care (they were also drunk). Deidara didn't resist and rested his head against the shoulder slightly tense.

"You're not a mistake and no, it's not your fault. You're past is fucked up, but I promise you that I'll make your future make up for it."

The rest of the night ended with Deidara crying himself to sleep against the redhead and the slightly sobered up teacher moving him to his bed. After tucking him in, he brought a wet towel to wipe off the dried tears and the apparent waterproof eyeliner off. Honestly kids these days with their makeup.

Realizing that he's been sitting there staring at his pupil for the past ten minutes, the thirty one year old single 'father' got up to go to bed.

He glanced at the wet spot on his shirt's shoulder, some smudged eyeliner stained it. Guess I'm gonna trash this shirt.

The next day, Deidara woke up in pain, groaning as light slipped through his blinds. Hangovers are a bitch. And apparently Sasori was immune to them since he didn't seem to be dying as he brought him a glass of water and painkillers. Sasori raised his eyebrows as a hand blindly reached out from underneath the covers to escape the light and successfully drained the cup and the pills inside his sanctuary. Taking back the empty cup handed back to him blindly, the hand retreated back to its shell with a muffled 'thank you'.

"Rest up, and don't get used to this kindness." Sasori sighed and got up to close the blinds.

Before he left the room, Deidara poked his head out.

"Sasori?"

He looked back at the blond.

"Really…..thank you."

He smiled as the embarrassed blond quickly retreated back to his shell.

"You're welcome."