AUTHOR'S NOTE! I'm alive, still! And it's Christms tomorrow~! Oh, I am in the best of moods, with my 80s X-mas music, and dressing my Deidara plushie in his home-made Santa suit. Woo!! So, I was digging through some old files, and found this! Yes, this one-shot was formerly posted on my old Quizilla account (Kairix). So, if any of you remember me from that time, then you should know this story. But, I did re-wrtie almost all of the ending, and edited a lot of the middle. So, yeah... Well, anyway. I'm writing a new X-mas Deidara fic, so look out for that too. MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!!

DISCLAIMER! Too lazy to write something witty. Long of the short of it is that I own nothing. Happy?

00. "Merry Christmas, Sasori-Danna!"

Puppets can't feel love, Kairi-san...

This was the first principle Master taught me, right after I was first created as a replacement for Master's betrayal-happy partner.

My life had always been quite peaceful before I met him. I lived and worked in the shinobi village of Sunagakure. Not a shinobi myself, my family owned a tiny bakery in which I worked. Well, actually, my family is no longer with me; I was a refugee from Kirigakure. My family had the unique ability of having complete control over water. They were, unfortunately, greatly feared and...Well, here I am.

It wasn't planned...My arrival in Suna, I mean. But I figured that no one would expect a native of Kiri to live anywhere in the Land of Wind, due to the...unfavorable conditions. True, I lived in discomfort at first, but I was tolerant. After all, it was either hot weather or death.

Needless to say, I chose hot weather...

And, to keep myself going, I opened up a little bakery! Customers didn't exactly flow in, but it was a pretty good business and it kept my wallet healthy. I can still remember my favorite customer, who came in every other day at least. He came in at night though, right before closing time. It was so long ago...God; the kid must be at least fifteen now. But still, he was my first friend in Suna...

Humming a little tune to myself, I went around the warm, sweet-smelling shop, armed with a washcloth and prepared to take down any specks of dirt.

"Prepare yourselves, dirt particles!" I yelled, waving around the rag, "I declare war!! Hmm, maybe it wouldn't hurt if I...No one is watching, anyway..."

Looking around, I shrugged and made a hand seal. Water gushed from the sink nearby.

"Nononono! Not that much water!! Oh...Oh well. There'll be too much sound but..." I whispered rapidly, arranging some glass goblets in a circular pattern on a shelf.

"Mizu Uta no Jutsu!"

The water rose up and began to spin rapidly on the goblet tops, generating a pulsing tune. It was bright and cheery, hitting my ears with a pleasant sort of sharpness. My hips began to sway to the bouncy tune, and I soon found my foot tappping to the beat as well.

I danced around the small room, wiping away at all the counter top and glass displays. I didn't mind the cleaning so much; at least, not when it was so fun to dance around a bit as I did it. No one was watching anyway.

"Ha HA! Die particles of filth, DIE!!" I yelled energetically, moving my hips to the tune of the music. I jumped here and bounded there, cleaning in a mad frenzy.

Ilaughed hearitly, leaping around the shop like a rabbit, wiping away any dirt I saw.

"H-Hello? Sorry to interrupt..." a small voice squeaked over the racket of my music and laughter. I froze, letting go of the jutsu. The rapidly moving water sloshed into the goblets and was still. I turned around, mortified, and looked for whoever entered my store.

Turning my head frantically, I couldn't see anyone. The I noticed a shock of blood-red hair. Leaning over the counter I was behind, I looked down at a six-year old kid.

"Oh! A customer...! Er...Sorry you had to see that...I got a bit carried away...Heh..." I stammered, scratching the back of my head and smiling. He stared at me with wide, sea-foam green eyes. I cocked my head to the side, still smiling.

"So, what will it be? How 'bout some chocolate chip cookies? Or maybe some Mochi?" I asked excitedly, pointing to the display of sweets. The kid's head perked up at the word 'cookies'. I laughed merrily, causing him to blush slightly.

"Cookies, then?" I suggested. He hesitated slightly and nodded his head rapidly, causing the shock of red hair to fall over his eyes a bit. I laughed again as I went over to the display of sweets a plucked out a few chocolate chip cookies and put them in a brown paper bag.

"Is this enough?" I asked kindly, "Or would you like more?"

"M-Mou sukoshi, o-onegai-shimasu..." he whispered, almost afraid to ask. I smiled again and nodded.

"Sure thing, cutie!" I smiled, placing a few more in the bag. I peered over at him; the poor kid stared at me, mouth agape and blushing furiously. I smiled at him, causing him to flinch slightly. I arched an eyebrow at this strange action.

What kind of a kid flinches when someone smiles? Huh...

"Well, here you go!" I said cheerily handing him the bag of cookies. He took it hesitantly and reached in his pocket for money.

"H-How much will it be?" he whispered. I thought awhile and smiled.

"Nah, keep your money sweetie. It's on the house!" I said, leaning over the counter and reaching over to flick his nose playfully. However, right before I got a chance to flick him, a wall of sand came up and encircled my finger.

"What the...?!" I yelled. trying to pull away. Suddenly, the sand tightened, breaking my finger. I bit my lip as the wave of white-hot pain washed over my finger, and tasted blood.

"N-NO! I'm sososososo sorry!" the kid whimpered, tears gushing out of his eyes, "G-Gomen Nasai! Gomen Nasai!"

"Y-You-"

"...Monster?" the boy asked tentatively. From the sound of it, he had been called that many times before. I bit my lip once more and broke the finger back into place, gasping with pain. Squatting down as the waves of heat lessened, I fixed the boy in a gentle stare.

"You...You didn't mean it did you? You couldn't help it, right?" I asked slowly. He looked at me with wide eyes and nodded.

"What's you name, kid?" I questioned in a soft voice. He hesitated slightly.

"S-Sabaku no G-Gaara..:" he finally said. My eyes widened slightly.

So this is the monster of Suna everyone whispers about?

"My name is Kairi, Gaara-kun," I said lowly, "You know, between you and me, we're not all that different from each other..."

"N-Nan da to?" Gaarawhispered in surprise, his eyes blowing upwith the shock. I sighed a bit wearily.

"Mhm. People treated me the same as they do to you. You see..." I trailed off. Would it really be wise to tell the Kazekage's son who I really was? But, upon looking at the boy, I saw that his father must have not really paid much attention to him...So I continued my tale.

"You see, I am one of the Kirigakure clan members who were persecuted, because the people feared our powers. My whole family is dead because of them..." I explained, getting up and brushing my self off, "I know how you feel. I know exactly how you feel..."

And that was how I met my very first friend in Sunagakure...

The boy came back almost everyday after that. It was a bit weird; a six-year-old boy was a fifteen-year-old's best friend, but I didn't care. He was intriguing, and I was fascinated by him. He seemed equally as interested in my powers. What I could do was an extreme rarity in Suna. But then one day, he didn't come. I shrugged it off, thinking that his father wanted him home that day for some reason. But then a civilian came in, frantically waving his hands...

"The Kazekage's son! He's been captured!" he yelled. My heart dropped to the ground in a second.

"SHIT!" I screamed, "I'M COMING GAARA-KUN!!" I grabbed a hip flask and filled it with water. Slinging it over my shoulder I ran out of the door as fast as my legs would carry me.

I was so stupid...

If only I had taken a moment to analyze the situation, I would never have been forced to join the Akatsuki...

I would still be human...

But then again, I wouldn't have met him...

The first thing I should have realized:

Everyone hated Gaara, Why would anyone care if he was kidnapped?

The second thing?

No one referred to Gaara as the 'Kazekage's son'. They always called him the 'Demon of the Sand' or something even more horrid.

And last thing...The chances of me noticing this back then were very slim, but...

If I had turned around, I would have noticed that the so-called civilian fell to the floor, dead. Why? Because it was already dead, and just being controlled from far off..

"GAARA-KUN!! WHERE ARE YOU?!" I screamed into the night, gasping for air. Suddenly, malicious laughter filled the hot, stifling air of Suna. I whirled around and saw a figure on the roof of the Kazekage's building. Then I saw Gaara being lifted into the air, by the means of some sort of tail.

"Too late..." the figure said, his voice dripping with contempt. I shivered, but not because it was cold. I made a hand seal and the water in the flask gushed out. I held it in mid-air, but shakily.

"Hmph, you can't even control your powers. Pity...I was so looking forward to good fight," the figure sighed. I growled and jumped onto the roof.

"GIVE HIM BACK YOU BASTARD!!" I screamed, the water forming into a spiky ball. The figure laughed again, and with a flick of his tail, reduced Gaara into no more that a pile of sand.

"You...Y-You..." I gasped, unable to understand that I had been led into a complicated trap; one that I would have to fight my way out of. My thoughts were cut off as the figure launched itself at me, spitting senbon needles by the thousands. My eyes widened as my body froze. A spilt second before they could pierce me, I jumped away, spiraling the water into a deadly blade.

"If you want to kill me, you'd better come at me with all you've got!" I yelled fiercely, "Because I ain't going down with out a fight!!"

"Touching..." the damned figure replied smoothly. I narrowed my eyes and charged at him, avoiding all the needles. I was so close to slashing at his neck with my blade of water, but then I was paralyzed with pain. Looking down, I saw this tail-like...thing protruding from my stomach. I opened my mouth to let out a blood-curling scream, but no sound came. Pain washed over my body in intense waves.

"Was that it? That was the fearsome power of a Kirigakure clan member?" the figure growled. "Pity..."

I tried to move, but it resulted in more pain. I closed my eyes in resignation, waiting for death to come...

And that was how I met him. That bastard whom I love. I remember opening my eyes later, after the attack. Unfortunately, it was in the middle of the process of turning my body into a puppet. I remember gazing upon surgical tools and fearing the pain. But there was none. My body was numb; everything was numb. I had looked up and gazed into those beautiful chocolate-brown eyes for the first time. I remember being surprised to find no emotions in them. But then, he spoke to me...

"So, you're awake? Odd...I suppose your body has fought off the effects of my poison already..." he said.

"P-Poi...son?" I croaked, feeling extremely weak.

"Yes, poison. Don't worry though, death will come soon enough..." he replied calmly.

"D...D-Dea....th?"

"Yes, you will soon become one of my collection. A member of one of the Kirigakure clans..." he said softly, almost to himself. Silence followed. It was a very odd situation. There I was dying, and at the same time being turned into...whatever his collections are. And yet, I wasn't scared or...or anything! If I couldn't even fight properly, then maybe it was best that I just die...

"Why didn't you run?" the man questioned me suddenly.

"G-Gaa..." I strained to say, but I couldn't even finish the word. How pathetic.

"The boy? You knew that you couldnt win against me, didnt you?" he said wistfully. I managed to nod my head.

"Then why fight?"

"Lo...Lo...Love" I croaked out. The red-haired man froze and looked into my eyes, as if trying to find an answer to something. He soon scowled.

"It seems pointless that you should die for something as trivial as...love..."

I found myself able to shake my head, but with a twinge of pain. I cursed mentally; the pain was starting to come.

"No?" he seemed surprised by this. I closed my eyes and smiled gently, nodding. I felt myself fading away, in the permanent black of Death.

"No...Dying for love isn't pointless. If anything, it makes death worth it..." I whispered, succumbing to my fate as I let death take me. The last thing I heard was:

"Love makes death worth it...?"

So because of that, I was spared. So to speak.

It seems that my captor was intrigued by my views on love, and let me keep my heart. In short, I was kept alive, but for a price...

When I next woke up, I couldn't move at all, save for the occasional twitch I could manage. Eventually (meaning after weeks of practice) I could walk around freely. I found my self still able to use my jutsu, after trying to drown him as he walked in the room I was in.

He soon introduced himself as Akasuna no Sasori.

So I knew his name, but that didn't stop from hating his non-existent guts. Especially after he taught me the first principle of my 'condition'...

I could never love again...

Eventually I warmed up to him. Now, eventually, is the key word here. But, he taught me about the Hitokugutsu and the process of creating them. I learned about the art of puppetry and how to create simple puppets for battles. I also learned how to use chakra strings, which has been quite useful whenever I want to trip somebody.

But, I never forgot to love.

Even though I learned to follow my master's every command ever so faithfully, I still found it impossible to not love.

Maybe it was because my heart had been so full of love before I was made, I do not know.

But that just brings me to my dilemma today.

You see, I had fallen in love with my master, Akasuna no Sasori...

And, to top it all off,

Today is Christmas!

So, I obviously have to give him the most perfect gift. Master tends to be annoyed with things that are less than perfection. Like his blonde, impulsive partner, Deidara. But that is a different story.

Luckily, I found the solution to my gift problem months ago.

I made a small miniature of himself. I slaved over it for five whole months, getting all the details and weapons right. And, it didn't make my task any easier that Sasori-danna rarely came out of his puppet shell.

But I managed to do it. Mind you, it isn't easy to make thousands of tiny senbon needles; as thin as a strand of hair and as long as your pinky nail.

Speak of the devil; he came in just as I was admiring my work. I swiftly hid it behind my back.

"Hello, Kairi-san. Has you day been good?" he asked, sealing away Hiruko. His words were polite enough, but I knew that there was no true meaning behind them. It was routine, just like everything else he did. I never minded this thought, and I often times thought that I could detect a hint of...Something when he spoke to me. If it was emotion, I didn't know. But it wasn't there when I first met him, that's for sure.

"So you do care?" I replied smoothly, smiling. He glared at me with distaste, probably because of my smile.

"Why do you try so hard to be human?" he asked irritably. I wiped the smile off of my face.

"Gomen nasai, Sasori-danna..." I mumbled, bowing my head and allowing my raven hair to fall over my face, "Do you happen to know what today is, Sasori-danna?"

"Of course I do! My idiot partner has been babbling about it all day. Today is Christmas, a rather morbid holiday if you ask me..." he answered, narrowing his eyes with disgust

"Oh...Well..." I muttered, revealing my gift to him, "Gomen nasai, I did not know you disliked Christmas..."

I peered over at him, to see his reaction. He held up his hands and attached chakra strings to the mini-Sasori. It began to move around my hands. Suddenly, it shot flames out of the palms of its hand. Exactly like the real Sasori could.

"Clever," he said softly, gazing at the miniature, "I presume this isn't all it could do, Kairi-san?"

I shook my head, "No, I designed it to be exactly like you. Every attack and weapon..."

"Even the scrolls?" he asked, making the small puppet leap off of my hands and unto the floor with a flick of a finger.

"Even the scrolls," I confirmed, lifting my head up to look into his eyes.

"Clever," he repeated, a ghost of a smile on his face. I kept staring at him, and tried to resist the urge to tell him how I felt. He would just lecture me on how puppets can't feel love.

To Hell with that!

I fiddled with my hair, debating on what to do next. One part of me was telling me that Sasori wouldn't be too happy (so to speak) if I told him how I felt. The other, compulsive side was urging me to tell him how I feel. After all, I was a firm believer that Sasori could love. He just forgot how to.

Why? Because he had a heart. As much as he preched that he couldn't feel, or had no use for emotions, they were there. They had to be there. He could still be angry and irritable, couldn't he? He was still impatient, wasn't he? Oh, Lord knows it's true.

So why couldn't he love? Hah! Of course he could! The fool just locked all those emotions away, and they were there forgotten. But maybe...Maybe I could get him to find them again.

"Sasori-danna?" I called. He looked at me through the corner of his eye.

"G-Gomen nasai..." I mumbled.

"Sorry? For what?" he asked, arching an eyebrow. I fixed him in the gaze of my icy blue eyes.

"For not listening to you. I never forgot to love, Sasori-danna..." I whispered, rushing over to him and doing the most impulsive thing in my life.

I kissed him.

I pressed my lips to his; my body itself could not feel it. And even if it could, I knew he was not soft, not warm like all the other men in the world. But it was a sign, an action of how I felt. And that was enough.

Seconds later, I pulled away and stepped back, fearing his reaction and at the same time, not wanting to wait to see it.

Silence...

If I was human, I probably would have tears rushing down my face right now. Then again, if I was human, I would never have met him.

My thoughts were soon shattered by pale skin filling my vision. I looked down with widened eyes and saw it; hard lips crashing against mine, a cold and unfeeling hand vaguely touching my ceek, holding my face in place as if I would move away.

But no worries there. I wanted this, so there was no reason to move. No, instead I knew my own eyes were closing, and I leaned in further to enjoy to moment. What was left of my senses told me that my hand had risin, and was in place over Sasori's own hand as well.

I did nothing as he pulled away. In the end, I was left speechless. Utterly speechless.

The flame-heaed man looked at me through those usually frosty chocolate eyes, and I couldn't help but feel my lips twitch up into something of a smile. They weren't cold this time. There was a flicker of a tiny flame of...Of...

Feeling. Emotion. Love.

"I was right," the words escaped my lips without meaning to, and a tiny smile made it's way unto his face, "...Merry Christmas, then, Sasori-danna..."

"Maybe Christmas isn't such a morbid holiday..." he spoke at last, taking his little puppet and walking away. I smiled gently as his parting words hit my ears:

"...Merry Christmas, Kairi..."

KAZ SPEAKS! D'AWW. THAT WAS ONE OF THE CUTEST SCENES I HAVE EVER WRITTEN. So far, anyway.

Well, well?! How'd I do? This was old, and my old stuff isn't relaly as good as the newer things. But I still like it. So, I hope you do too. And for all you Deidara fans, I have another one-shot in the works! I will hopefully have it out by today, or by tomorrow.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!! I really hope you enjoyed it~!

...And for my X-mas present, won't you leave a review? :D