Day 7. Free day!

Even though Pein has already rolled out new missions, the hideout seems rowdier than it's supposed to be. Obito mostly blames this on Hidan, even though the man is down the hallway, nowhere near his own room. Sighing, he sits up straight once more and closes his eyes, trying to maintain a sort of peace inside him.

Meditation — though he doesn't like to call it that — has helped him in many ways. He's able to see clearly when he rests his mind, voiding it of any stressful thoughts, particularly ones that involve plans about moons. Since he has managed to free up some of his days, he utilizes that time to achieve this.

Babysitting is not one of his favorite things to do.

There is a creak in the darkness behind his eyelids and Obito's eyebrows furrow, even though he knows very well who it is. No one who needs his attention dares enter his room without knocking. Since there's really only one person who would ever want to ask for him, he knows that it is Deidara who is currently sitting at his desk, being respectably quiet.

There is an understanding between the two. Obviously, they don't know a lot about each other and there are guarded secrets that neither of them is ready to let go of yet.

While Obito is aware that Deidara is rather impatient on that front, displaying a lot of subtle behaviors of wanting Tobi to leak at least some of his secrets., he's not ready for that sort of commitment just yet. He's not sure if Deidara would be able to handle that sort of thing anyway. His secrets aren't just a passing comment that could be uttered at the last second and have it accepted as it is.

Deidara would probably be upset if he knew the reason why he's in the Akatsuki in the first place, and then get even more upset when he realizes the true cause of him helping the organization gather the tailed beasts. Obito wants to loop him in but there is a nagging feeling inside of him that the kid won't react very well, no matter how much he claims to love Tobi.

He blinks his eyes open, his mind refusing to let go on that topic and he gazes at Deidara, who is indeed sitting at his desk. He's not watching him as he usually does, but instead, he's decided to use his desk like it's his own, spreading out his sculpting tools everywhere and working on an art piece.

Obito never understands the need to keep refining his craft when he's so good already, though if Tobi ever voices that question, he'd probably get a good beating — and not the kind that he usually enjoys (let's just say, those hand-mouths no longer look disgusting to Obito).

He doesn't seem to notice that Obito's not meditating anymore, too lost in his art. Standing up, he heads over to Deidara and rests a reassuring hand on his shoulder, a wordless statement saying that he's here. Deidara doesn't jump too harshly from the sudden contact and he does not turn around as well.

There is a tenseness in Deidara's muscles, Obito notices just a few seconds after placing his hands on his shoulder. He quickly turns his gaze to his artwork. Ah, it is not the usually dabbling art that Deidara would create on his free, spare time. This is something else. Instantly, Obito already has the cause in his mind.

"Did Itachi do something again, senpai?" Tobi asks, moving both his hands to rest on Deidara's shoulder, beginning to give him a little massage to sooth the tension away from his muscles.

"Hidan, hm," Deidara sighs, rolling his head in appreciation. He stops digging his nails into the poor clay in his hands and sets it down on the desk. "He keeps talking about the fight that led me here in the first place."

He knows exactly what the fight is and quite honestly, Obito finds himself amused each time he recalls it. Deidara, such a young and impulse-driven boy — oh, well. He supposes not much has changed. Tobi chuckles at his senpai's words and continues to rub his thumb against the space between the shoulder blades, earning himself a rather erotic moan as a reward for his troubles.

"You shouldn't listen to what Hidan says, senpai," Tobi coos, soothing his senpai with comforting words. "We all know that he's all talk and not much action. I doubt that he understands half of the things he's saying anyway."

Deidara chuckles and Tobi takes this as an invitation for more.

"Besides, if senpai wanted to, I'm sure you can blow that zombie man up into little pieces, so small that not even Kakuzu could sew him back together," Tobi nods.

"Yeah," Deidara smiles, turning and gripping Tobi's hand when he allows them to slide off his shoulders. "Speaking of blowing things up, I need to let off some steam, hm. You want to go to a mountain and hollow it out, yeah?"

Tobi pulls away and taps his chin, making an empty wooden noise as he does. He thinks about it. "Oh, but I'm sure the mountain wouldn't like that," Tobi muses.

"Screw what the mountain thinks. I hate getting reminded of dumbass Itachi, hm!" Deidara pouts.

Obito would roll his eyes, but he's pretty sure if he allows himself to do that, he'll roll his head along with it as well, and he couldn't quite hide that behind a mask. "Okay, if it will make senpai feel better," Tobi says.

"Yeah, and I'll practice my moves so that it will be perfect when I fight Itachi, hm," Deidara says, standing up from the chair and grabbing Tobi's hand once more, heading toward the door. "Then I'll be free to do whatever I want."

"Yes," Obito says, following along whenever Deidara takes him. "You'll be free."

One of the reasons why Obito is attracted to Deidara is because of the way he seems so unburdened. Even though he hates Itachi, he does not act like the hatred is what drives him, despite it being the main motivation for him to train his left eye to pick out illusions and perhaps even led to the creation of the eye scope. It's definitely what made him create certain techniques, or at least improve them to the point of it being able to level half a forest.

And Obito understands that living like that does has its advantages.

And Deidara understands that Tobi is just a layer on top of the character. There's something sinister hidden deep within there that shows at night, or when Tobi thinks that he's not looking.

That understanding is what keeps them rotating around each other, trying to understand one another and at the same time just attempt to provide what each other wants. And maybe, if they keep doing that, they'd one day manage to find a perfect balance.

Then, they'd truly be free.

Hey guys, Red here!

How late am I? Two, three days late. Ah well.

I did this one in a strange fashion. I don't really know what I wanted to write even though I know that it'd be part of the storyline within this series. I just did a warp up as the finale.

Sorry for the abrupt one paragraph change to Deidara's POV there. It's kinda weird but I wanted to show you more directly that this is not one-sided and I'm too tired from school to really whip up some magical things, so just accept it as it is.

Anyway, I'm simultaneously glad and sad that TobiDei week is over! Keeping up with writing a fanfic a day, or even writing it up in bulk and posting it on their respective days, is hard work when I have to juggle it with a degree that focuses on creative writing. Gosh! Writing, man! Too much writing!

Though even though it's been a ride trying to keep up with this, it is still nonetheless fun and I'd still participate if there's one next year! I'll just stock up on fanfics and then release them by their dates, haha. This is the first time I'm participating in any sort of challenge, after all, so this mistake is probably something first-time challangees face. I'll try and not make this mistake next time. (To be fair, I did try and write them in advance, it's just that I was lazy and thought I could handle writing it a week before the challenge began, and then procrastinated through that week and decided that writing one a day is an absolutely okay thing to do.)

Cheers,
-redskiez:)