What? I have like five other stories in progress? Hm? Write a new one? Great idea!

Sasori huffed to himself as he saw the bus finally pulling up to the stop. A whole thirty minutes late. Sasori was seriously thinking about writing a detailed review for the bus company and hopefully getting the bus driver fired, but that was only wishful thinking. The only thing he would be able to write about would be it's poor efficiency and maybe how terrible the graphic design was on the side of the coach. Oh, the woes of an art critic.

As soon as he got on, he saw that the whole bus was practically full and he even though he really didn't want to stand for fifteen minutes, he didn't want to walk for forty-five. As he took his spot at a pole, he saw that one person actually had a spare seat but was using it for his bag.

Sasori narrowed his eyes at the stranger who just seemed to stare at him. It unnerved Sasori slightly, but it pissed him off just as much. This guy could have given up the spare seat easily to someone who could use it. Sasori knew he didn't look old, but he felt like it.

Sighing irritably, he looked out the window and shifted his laptop bag and hoped that the man would stop staring at him. Was it his hair? Did he look like a mess because he felt like it? Sasori nearly smelled himself to see if it was that, but then again, the bus smelled just as terrible.

Because the stranger wouldn't stop starting at him, he decided to look back and eyeball the stranger as well. The first thing was the hair, which was long slightly wavy and blond. Most of it was tied up, but some was left out, multiple strands at the nape of his neck and some behind his ear that seemed to sway forward and fall in front of his left eye. He didn't seem to care.

His clothes were slightly mundane. Jeans, blue jacket. The only thing he wore that stood out was a bracelet that was an assortment of vivid neon rainbow colors. When Sasori looked closely, he saw that the man had two piercings in his left ear, three in the other.

And the most disturbing thing were his unnaturally blue eyes and the way they continued to peer at him. Sasori was starting to get a little more bothered by the blond's aberrant and oblivious staring. He began to note a few more things about the man and knew that he was becoming supercilious but he was used to judging so much. A terrible habit.

He sighed harshly and could practically hear his granny's voice saying, "That's very rude, Sasori! Never do that… And sit up straighter!"

Three minutes passed before the bus made a stop and Sasori could peer from the corner of his eye that the stranger was getting up from his seat. Sasori didn't want to sit down anymore than he did want to look at the man. When he was walking by Sasori, he bumped into him and Sasori opened his mouth to snap at him to watch where he was going until he noticed the white cane marked with red at the bottom in the blond's hand.

Sasori blanched at that and the man apologized with a smile before walking around him.

And now Sasori felt like an asshole. He nearly had to hide his face in shame but no one else seemed to notice his extreme discomfort.

He had gotten angry at a blind person for staring at him.

That was about as embarrassing and douchey as it could got.

The rest of the ride was long and uncomfortable as Sasori tried to come to terms with himself. He didn't say anything, nor did he act out, but it still felt wrong to get so upset over someone staring at him.

As soon as Sasori got home to his apartment complex he tried to forget about what happened and brewed himself a pot of tea before going over some new reviews that he was in the process of fixing up before sending them to his editor. As soon as he sat down at his kitchen table he heard a low meow that was closer to a moan from behind him. He felt his feline friend rub against his leg and Sasori ended up shoving the cat away with his foot.

"Not feeding you now, go away."

He was ignored as the cat jumped onto the table. He didn't admonish the beast enough because she really did whatever she wanted. Sasori huffed and got up to get the feline her food.

A birthday present from his cousin who was obsessed with cats. Sasori didn't know what to name her at the time so he took a look at her black fur and decided on Kuro.

Once Kuro had her food, Sasori went back to work but, of course, his mind unintentionally wavering towards the man he had seen on the bus. He was noticing things he hadn't seen before, a bad habit that he had, especially when he had just finished writing a review and was sending it in when he could have revised it further.

The man was young, perhaps early twenties, yet he had laugh lines around his eyes and mouth. His skin was sun kissed and it seemed like he spent a lot of time outdoors, wheres Sasori spent most of his time under florescent lights, making his complexion seem more fare than it really was.

When he had walked by Sasori, the critic saw that his hands were slathered lightly in a thin layer of gray. Sasori could smell it. Clay, the kind you can only find at the art store on Second street. He was an artist. It explained why he had gotten off on Second anyway.

Sasori hummed and continued to ponder in his own thoughts. He wanted to know what this man made, not to judge it but to understand a different style of art besides painting, which every other new artist seemed to be doing.

Sasori continued to type as he thought and soon his thoughts drifted to the man's features, or more specifically, the one's he thought were the most attractive. He had sharp features, opposing to Sasori's own soft face that made him look boyish, and they stood out with shadows. As Sasori thought about it, the stranger's eyes weren't exactly creepy, but almost perspicacious.

Kuro's meow brought him from his thoughts and he looked at his laptop to see that he had written all of his thoughts down. Swearing to himself, Sasori tried to find where his thoughts had strayed from his review on the new gallery on fifth. Practically from the beginning.

Huffing to himself, Sasori highlighted it and was about to delete it, but his finger hovered over the delete button on his keyboard. He read over his thoughts and pursed his lips before pushing Command C and pulling up another document to save his writing.

Sasori got up to pour himself a cup of tea and to gather his thoughts before he began writing again. He hadn't finished his impression of the blond-haired man on the bus and Sasori had to set his cup down to rake his hands through his too messy hair.

Once he sat down, Sasori ended up bring out the document he had just saved and continued tapping away at the keyboard to get the rest of his thoughts out. This didn't happen often, especially not when just seeing a random person on the bus. Sasori was used to writing about art and all of it's false forms, not people, but he couldn't seem to stop.

He continued on with his features. The stranger's face was narrow, making his cheekbones defined in the light. His eyelashes were long, and unlike his hair, black. Sasori had to pause, his fingers hovering over the keys. He had to think back to see if he saw any smudges on the man's face, if it gave away that he was wearing mascara. The blond's eyes appeared flawless. Natural, most likely.

Sasori began again.

He caught a glimpse of his nails when he walked by, and they were painted a dark purple, the color standing out against the gray of clay on his fingers. As he passed by, Sasori could smell something else besides the clay. Was it chai, or coffee? Both, he deduced.

A knock interrupted Sasori's flow of thoughts and it all came crashing down around him. He was frozen and a few seconds later there was another knock. Kuro meowed from her spot on the couch and Sasori finally got the nerve to stand up, his hand brushing against his chilled tea.

He hurried over to the door, wanting to get his entire portrayal down before it all left him, and he unlocked it with such haste it nearly sounded like he was having a fit. He opened the door, expecting to find Mrs. Kur needing another cup of sugar– which Sasori did not have –but instead found the stranger from the bus.

Sasori's heart nearly jumped from his chest and he unintentionally moved a step away from the door. The man looked like he was having a pretty rough evening, his expression haggard even though he stared off into nothing.

"Hello, un?"

Sasori's eyebrow twitched at the speech impediment and he filed that away for later. Gathering his wit quickly, Sasori answered, "Yes, is there something I can help you with?" he hoped his tone wasn't filled with too much hesitation. He took a deep breath and pulled on his icy exterior, the one he wore when at the galleries.

The blond seemed slightly put off by his tone, and he sighed in exhaustion. "I'm sorry for bothering you so late, but my heater isn't working, un. The front desk said that it should be fine but I can't seem to fix it, and it's only blowing a freaking blizzard in there, un. Could you help me, un?"

His expression was nearly embarrassed, like he never asked for help before and doing so was wrong. Sasori kept himself composed. "Sure, that's fine," he replied before saying that he was going back into his apartment for his keys. Once he was out again, the blond led him to his room through the hall, his fingers skimming the wall by his hips.

After a few seconds of walking, his neighbor stopped three doors away from Sasori's apartment. He got out his keys and unlocked the door with ease. Once he stepped in, he didn't even bother turning on the lights but Sasori did, just so he wouldn't trip on the cardboard boxes on the floor. Must have just moved in even though Sasori never saw a moving truck outside.

The click made the man turn towards Sasori slightly. "Ah, sorry about that, I usually don't turn on the lights."

"It's fine. Where is your thermostat?" Sasori said, his voice slightly glazed as he spied a lump of clay on the table, a newspaper under it to keep the wood safe. He was making something. Sasori had to look back towards his new neighbor to see where he was heading.

The blond led him to the hall next to his kitchen and gestured to the device with a huff. "Lived here for two days and this thing has been on the fritz the whole time, un."

Sasori nodded, even though the man didn't see, and looked at the thermostat. It was set to high, that was correct, so what was wrong. There was a sticky note with numbers but that didn't give any hint. So Sasori pushed some buttons, as the man began to talk.

"Thanks again for coming, un. No one else was home so I had to knock on all the doors until someone answered." Sasori looked over his shoulder to see that the blond was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. He looked like a different person than the one on the bus.

"The front desk is closed?" he asked as he began pushing some more buttons.

"Seems like it," his neighbor grumbled as he swatted his hand through the air. "Went down there twice in the past half hour and no one was there, un. I bet they left a sign to say they were out for dinner, but guess what, I can't see worth shit, un," he exclaimed in frustration and Sasori had the urge to hug him in hopes of cheering him up.

Sasori frowned and apologized, but the man just told him it wasn't his fault. Sasori pushed another button and saw what had gone wrong. "I'm assuming the previous owner liked living in an igloo, because he had this thing permanently set to fifty degrees fahrenheit." his new neighbor scoffed in disbelief. "Had a code set up and everything, but he put up a sticky note so the new owner could probably reset it."

"Could you do me a favor and just take that code thing off? The thermostat doesn't have braille, un." he was rubbing his forehead and facing away like he was ashamed.

Sasori cleared his throat. "Of course, how high?"

"Seventy is good, thanks, un." the blond faced Sasori's direction though his eyes were not quite on target.

Sasori still didn't know how to feel about his behavior just a few hours ago, but he seemed to get over it for now. He slid the dial over to seventy degrees and left it at that. "All done. Is there anything else?"

The man smiled very slightly, nearly in exhaustion but also in appreciation. "I feel like an asshole, I didn't even ask you what your name was, un."

Sasori almost stuck his hand out for an introduction. "Sasori, my name's Sasori Akasuna."

The blond's eyes widened a bit and his cheeks flushed just barely. "I'm Deidara Iwa. It's… thank you for helping me again, Sasori." Deidara walked by Sasori quickly and turned to go into the kitchen but he ended up crashing into the wall, misjudging the distance of the hall. "Shit, un," he moaned as he rubbed his face.

"Are you okay?" Sasori wondered what had made him care so much. He walked up to his neighbor.

Deidara nodded, not lifting his face from his hands. "Yes, I'm fine, un. Just not used to this new place yet is all." he brought his head up a little, his smile a little mirthful.

Sasori shifted on the carpet a little. "Okay, well if you need anything else, feel free to come knocking, all right?" Deidara began walking to the door again, this time having his hands brush agains things so he knew where he was headed.

Sasori followed him and stood behind him as Deidara stood by the door. "Thank you, Sasori, un," he hummed towards the end, finally opening the door and stepping out of the way.

Sasori stepped through the doorway and said his goodbyes, Deidara repeating them before the blond closed the door.

The walk back to Sasori's apartment seemed to take a mile as Sasori tried to process all of what just happened. The chances of the universe doing this to him were so very slim, but maybe they were trying to teach him a lesson? Don't judge! Something like that.

As soon as he got inside, Kuro meowed up at him and Sasori trudged past her to go back to his laptop, seeing that it had gone to sleep. He sat down and stared at the screen for two minutes before moving the curser with his index finger. Another minute passed before he began typing again.

–

He didn't see Deidara often. Sasori's hours for work were very unusual, and he only left his apartment when he was called up to look at a new piece someone put together, or if he needed food, but both were normally achieved in the same trip. It was two days before Sasori left the building and Kuro kept meowing at him, obviously wanting to go outside and run around a bit. Once Sasori opened the sliding glass door, she was out on the little section of lawn that he deemed his own. Kuro took one look at him and took off into the bushes.

Shaking his head, Sasori closed the door, knowing that he would be awaiting her return with paws on the glass in five minutes. As he was about to pour himself a cup of coffee, his phone buzzed in the pocket of his jeans and Sasori grumbled a swear as he fished it out.

"Akasuna," he said into the receiver.

One minute later he was running around his apartment, swearing to high heaven as he stubbed his toe against the coffee table as he reached for one of his journals. He only had five minutes to change out of his worn shirt and into something more respectable with a blazer thrown over it.

He was taming his hair when he realized that his feline friend was still outside. He took quick steps to his back porch and opened the door to see that she was nowhere within his field of vision. He seriously considered leaving her outside for a few hours but the last two times that happened, a neighbor kid found her and tried to throw her off the three story flat that she lived in. The other time, Kuro got into someone else's home and their dog went on a rampage trying to get her. Animal control was called and Sasori was left off with a warning. And people say that cats are easy to take care of.

He called for Kuro and a few neighbors looked out their windows to peer at him curiously but all Sasori could do was ignore them and go back inside. He checked his wristwatch and saw he had to be heading on the bus now or start sprinting. Sasori resisted the urge to kick something before he grabbed his laptop bag and stormed out of his apartment, keeping it unlocked.

He knew he should probably go to someone else, but the last time he asked the teenage neighbor girl to watch his cat, she threw a poorly planned party, seeming to forget that he would be back at the end of the day.

Sasori knocked on the door and a minute passed by before Deidara opened it. "Hello, un?"

"Hi, it's Sasori, listen, I'm a little busy and I need someone to let my cat in while I'm gone. She'll be back in about a half hour, do you think you can do that? She meows very loudly and paws at the door." Sasori didn't hide his hurried behavior as he checked his watch again. Thirty seconds had passed.

Deidara looked a little overwhelmed and he opened his mouth, probably to come up with an excuse and Sasori exhaled softly, his expression falling into one of displeasure.

"Please? If you need money–"

"No-no, it's not that, it's just," Deidara broke off before sighing and nodding. "Okay, sure I guess it's fine, un." He reached for something beside him and Sasori realized it was his cane and keys. Sasori stepped out of his way as Deidara left his apartment and locked his door.

Sasori went to his apartment and opened the door, stepping in and waiting for Deidara. "The layout of my apartment is very similar to yours, the sliding glass door is in the same place. There is coffee if you want any, cups on the counter by the sink. My cat's name is Kuro so if she doesn't come near you just call her that. Thank you, but I really need to leave now."

Deidara answered a quick affirmative and Sasori set out to the new gallery opening which foretold if he got to keep his job or not. He just hoped that he didn't make the wrong decision with letting Deidara into his life.

–

When Sasori came back to his flat seven hours later, he just wanted to kick off his devil shoes and fall into bed. He wouldn't even care if Kuro jumped in as well. As soon as he opened the door, he was taken by the sight of Deidara on his couch with Kuro purring on his lap. He watched from afar, his head lifting slightly as he watched the two of them.

The sunset made Deidara's hair shine brighter, skin slightly flushed, probably from the light through the window. His eyes were closed as he pet Kuro and he would have made more observations if Deidara hadn't spoken.

"Are you coming inside, un?"

Sasori cleared his throat and stepped in, closing the door behind him with a definite click. "Did she come back later than expected?" Sasori stepped into the living room, undoing the buttons on his blazer after taking off his laptop bag and setting it down next to the coffee table.

Deidara's grin was a little mischievous. "No, she came back ten minutes after you left. At first she wouldn't come in but when she did, she stayed as far away from me as possible, un. An hour later she wouldn't get off and," he laughed gently. "Here we are, un. Sorry for staying for longer than expected, but she wouldn't stop meowing once I opened the door to leave, un."

Sasori glared at his cat who seemed to smirk up at him. He did not need this, but with what Deidara did… "Wait, you were here this whole time? Did you at least eat anything?"

Deidara hummed. "I found some crackers in your cupboard and had a cup of coffee, un."

Sasori swore and fell into the armchair that sat facing the sofa that Deidara occupied. "Well that was very rude of me," he muttered as he continued to stare at Deidara. Freckle on his right collarbone. "Can I buy you dinner for a compensation? Crackers aren't really a meal."

Deidara pursed his lips and his brow was furrowed. "I don't need any help you know, un."

Sasori nearly scoffed. "Never said you did. I just think it would be nice since you've been cooped up in here for seven hours with no food and a cat whose needs match that of an infant's." Kuro peered at him out of the corner of her slitted eyes before laying herself down onto Deidara again.

Deidara was tired, that was evident. Sasori wanted to see him in a livelier state; this one didn't suit him very well and he had a strong feeling in his gut that it had something to do with him.

"It'd be my treat, and to be honest, I'm starving. I was stuck in a building with too many critics to be able breathe."

Deidara's head snapped towards Sasori's direction. "What kind of critics?"

Sasori practically sank into his chair, his whole body slouched as he answered. "Art, most of them retired, but that painter Sai was in town and everyone wanted a good look at what new thing he came up with."

"Sai Anbu, un?"

Sasori nodded to himself as he closed his eyes, the remaining sunlight washing over him. "Yeah, the guy's a sociopath but his paintings are freaking magnificent."

"Sounds like a fun guy, un. Do you usually hang out with these types of people?" Deidara chuckled briefly.

Sasori smiled without humor. "I haven't left my apartment in two days, and only had to because my career depended on it. Plus you are the last person I've talked to in the past four days."

Deidara bit his lip to hide his smile. "Well your job sounds very exciting. Did Sai come up with anything worth looking at, un?"

Sasori stayed silent to gather his thoughts. "Yes, it was a flawless mess as usual. I haven't seen a painter like him for a long time."

"What did it look like, un?"

Sasori could tell that Deidara was holding back his excitement and the critic wanted to see more from him. He began telling Deidara his observations, his own opinions, taking out one of his journals to take more notes on things he hadn't picked up on before. He had never spoken about his thoughts before. It was strange to say the very least.

An hour passed by and Sasori barely noticed that the sun had set, but when he heard Deidara's stomach growl, he felt something akin to guilt stab into his stomach and it made him want to vomit. He had never had that reaction before. Maybe he was the sociopath.

"I'm sorry, I've kept you here longer than was necessary."

Deidara yawned and waved his hand through the air. "No, it's fine, but I do think it's time for me to be heading home now, un." he touched his wristwatch and Sasori knew that there was braille there.

"It's a little too late for dinner, so how about I take you out tomorrow?" Sasori stood up and picked up Kuro who had fallen asleep by Deidara's legs.

Deidara was still trying to conceal his grin as he stood up, cane in hand. "I guess that's fine, un. What time?"

"Seven good?" Sasori went to his door to open it for Deidara and he turned around to see the blond following him.

"Perfect. Dress casual, un?"

Sasori hummed his affirmative. "I'll come and get you at seven."

Deidara walked through the threshold. "I'll see you then, un." he walked to his apartment and Sasori didn't close the door until he saw that Deidara had gotten inside. He closed the door, lost inside his own mind as Kuro struggled to get out of his arms.

"What did I just do?"

Kuro chirped as she jumped away from him and headed to his bedroom. It seemed he would have a bedmate tonight.

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