A/N: For The Black Rose 1995. She's an awesome gal. :)
I hope you like it, girlie! This is my longest work ever. Nearly seven pages or so. ._.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Deidara glanced in the mirror, going over the lines he had so carefully thought out. He was going to get Sasori Akasuna to be his boyfriend, he was sure of it.
If only he knew . . .
-----
Deidara walked into the art classroom, his azure blue eyes taking in every detail. He noticed Hidan sitting in the back, his legs in Kakuzu's lap. Kakuzu had a look of slight disgust on his face as the pale albino wriggled his toes dangerously close to Kakuzu's face. Deidara couldn't help the laugh that escaped his mouth, which grew louder once Hidan and Kakuzu glared daggers at the blonde. Deidara stuck out his tongue at the odd pair and shifted his gaze to Itachi and Kisame, who were staring into each other's eyes. He smiled gently at the couple and walked towards his best friend, Tobi. Tobi greeted Deidara with an enthusiastic wave, which Deidara recognized with a nod.
"Hey, Deidara! Why do you think that Pein-Sensei lets us get away with public displays of affection? Isn't that against the school rules?!" Tobi placed a hand to his forehead and tipped backward for a dramatic effect.
"Well, everyone knows that he's not so innocent himself, yeah. We've all seen him in the halls with his girlfriend, Konan. He'd be a hypocrite if he suspended us for that, un," Deidara said with a smirk.
"Oh . . . that's true, Dei," Tobi said, skipping happily towards his seat. Deidara laughed softly at his best friend's antics and followed after Tobi, sitting the seat behind him.
Moments later, their teacher, Pein, strode in the room. The light glinted off his multiple facial piercings, which intimidated anyone who came within a three foot radius of him without already knowing his personality. All of his students knew that he was only a bastard when he was provoked.
Behind Pein was Sasori, one of the best students in the art class, the other being Deidara. The two pupils had very different views of what was art, but they got along extremely well.
"Hey brat," muttered Sasori as he sat down in the empty seat next to Deidara. The blonde could feel his heartbeat speed up slightly.
"Hey Sasori, my man," the blonde responded.
"Hey Sasori! Man, you're never this late to class. What happened?" Tobi nearly yelled out. Most of the class rolled their eyes at him, but some of the students realized that the strange masked boy was right.
"Yeah, idiot, what the fuck happened?" Hidan asked, curiosity in his eyes.
"That's none of your business," Sasori stated. His tone indicated that there would be no further discussion about the reason for his tardy.
Hidan shrugged and went back to Kakuzu, and Tobi sniffled slightly, obviously hurt by Sasori's harshness. Of course, the redhead didn't really care.
Deidara, on the other hand, was slightly irritated because he didn't want Tobi to be upset, so he tapped Tobi's shoulder and told him to watch Itachi and Kisame. Kisame was leaning in to peck his boyfriend on the lips and Deidara grabbed a ball of soft clay, chucking it at the back of Kisame's head. Even though Itachi, being an Uchiha with wonderful reflexes, caught the ball before it landed, Tobi started to giggle. Deidara smiled, his work done.
"Idiots, stop it," Pein muttered from his desk. "We have a lot of work to do today. You're gonna pick partners for your semester project, which is worth about sixty-seven percent of your grade. Don't fuck up and pick someone that's gonna slack off, unless you don't mind doing a shitload of work."
Hidan sniggered at the fact that his teacher was cursing, one of the main reasons why Pein was his favorite teacher, causing Kakuzu to elbow him hard in the stomach.
"Now . . . Itachi, who're you working with?"
"Kisame," Itachi responded, barely looking at the teacher.
"Obviously . . . Now, Hidan?"
"Kakuzu, duh. What kind of fucking question is that?"
"Of course . . . now, Sasori?"
"Deidara," the redhead responded without hesitation.
Everyone, especially Deidara, stared at Sasori with mouths open and eyes wide. The blonde and the redhead never worked together in anything art related because of their very different views of what was art, Deidara insisting that art was only a fleeting moment of beauty and Sasori insisting that art was meant to last forever.
Pein blinked, his ringed eyes flashing with an odd sort of understanding. Deidara wondered why.
"Okay. Deidara, do you have a problem with that?" Pein asked.
"No, un," muttered the blonde.
"Good. Now, Tobi, you'll have to work with Zetsu. You don't mind, do you? You usually work with Deidara . . ."
"Tobi doesn't mind, Sensei. He thinks it'll be interesting to work with Zetsu," responded Tobi. He tried to sound happy, but he was obviously sort of bummed to not be working with Deidara on the project.
"Alright. He's absent, so fill him in on the information tomorrow. Now, the project is actually fairly simple. You're going to create a piece of art that captures who your partner is. Their likes, their dislikes, their passions, their dreams . . . you get the idea."
"Sensei, that's not simple at all," muttered Kakuzu.
"I know," Pein said with a smirk.
"Liar, liar, pants on fire!" Kisame yelled, causing everyone to laugh a little.
"Whatever. Now, most of you know each other from head to toe, but just in case you don't -"
Hidan coughed loudly, muttering Deidara, Tobi, Zetsu, and Sasori's names in between each cough. Pein glared at the pale student, who immediately shut up.
"Thanks for that interruption, Hidan. Now, as I was saying, just in case you don't know each other from head to toe, you have this entire class period to get to know each other. Don't goof off too much."
Everyone muttered a 'yes, Sensei' in response.
"And for the record, I'm pretty sure those four know each other."
"Yeah, I know Sasori, un," stated Deidara. "I've just never worked with him on an art project before."
"Mhm," responded Pein before drinking an aspirin. His headache was killing him.
Sasori turned to Deidara, brown eyes staring intently.
"Uh, do I have something on my face, un?"
Sasori snickered. "Nope."
"Then stop staring at me like that . . ."
"Nope. I'm doing it for the project."
"Staring at me, un?" Deidara asked, slightly irritated. Staring had nothing to do with art.
"Yup. You'll see, brat," said Sasori, smiling with a malevolent glint in his eyes.
"Okay . . ."
Sasori then winked and leaned back in his chair.
"So, you and Tobi are pretty close, huh?" Sasori asked the blonde.
"Yeah. He's my best friend, un," Deidara responded.
"Oh. I see."
"Yeah . . . so, Sasori, why did you want to work together?"
"Because I wanted to. Do I need a reason?"
"No, un. I guess you don't."
"Exactly."
"Okay. Hey, Sasori . . . I've been meaning to ask you something . . ." Deidara said, a light blush coating his cheeks.
"Yeah?" Asked Sasori.
"Well, we've known each other for a while now . . . and I like you . . ."
Sasori didn't say anything, so Deidara continued speaking softly.
"Like, I really like you, un . . . so, I was wondering . . . would you be my . . . boyfriend, un?" The blonde asked, his blue eyes hopeful.
Sasori was frozen. He wasn't expecting this at all. "No way . . ." he whispered. "No . . . no way . . ."
Deidara took that as the redhead's answer, and his shoulders sagged a bit. His eyes started filling up with tears and he ran out of the classroom quickly. Tobi glared at Sasori for a minute and followed after the blonde.
"This is why we shouldn't let those fucktards work together," Hidan murmured.
"Hidan, shut up," Pein said. "Sasori, what happened?"
Sasori didn't respond. He continued staring at the spot where Deidara was sitting seconds ago, a blank expression on his face. Pein shrugged and went back to grading papers, letting Sasori come back on his own time. Whatever happened, it could wait until the redhead was ready to tell.
Outside in the hall, Deidara was kneeling on the floor, sobs ripping out of his chest. He knew that there was always a chance of rejection, he just didn't know that it would hurt that much. He covered his mouth with his hand, trying to quiet down so that nobody heard him. Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up, feeling relieved at the fact that it was Tobi's hand.
Tobi kneeled next to Deidara, wrapping his arm around the blonde's frail shoulders. Deidara leaned into Tobi's side, feeling comforted by the familiar embrace of his friend.
"Tobi takes it that Sasori didn't say yes . . ."
Deidara nodded and rested his head on Tobi's chest. Tobi frowned beneath his mask at the sensation of Deidara's tears seeping through his shirt.
Suddenly, Deidara felt Tobi stiffen. He sniffled and looked up, his eyes locking with Sasori's.
"What do you want?" Asked Tobi. His tone sounded dark and menacing, the complete opposite of what everyone was used to hearing.
Sasori's eyes, which were warm a second ago, were now cold and indifferent.
"Never mind, it looks like I'm interrupting," stated Sasori.
"Yes, you are. Go away," Tobi demanded.
Sasori looked at Deidara one more time before turning around and striding back into the classroom.
"Tobi, you didn't have to be so mean, un . . ."
"Yes, Tobi did have to be mean. Sasori hurt you, Deidara, and Tobi will not stand for it," Tobi said seriously.
Deidara's eyes widened. In all of his years of knowing the masked teen, the blonde had never seen him act so harshly.
"But why . . ."
Tobi glanced at Deidara. "It's complicated."
Deidara nodded his head in understanding and stood up, determined to return to the classroom and sort things out with Sasori.
When the blonde walked into the classroom, the noise he heard from outside the door immediately quieted down, and it felt like all eyes were on him. Deidara walked towards Sasori's seat with his head held high and sat down across from him. Everyone went back to whatever they were doing, and Deidara turned to the redhead. He tried to ignore the cold glare that Sasori was giving him and cleared his throat.
"What?" Asked Sasori.
". . . . why are you angry?"
"I thought you said that Tobi was your best friend."
"He is, un," Deidara told him, cocking his head to the side in confusion.
"Out there it looked like he was much more than that, Deidara."
Deidara's temper flared. How dare he?
"It's not like it matters if he is more, Sasori. You've no claim on me, un," Deidara stated coldly.
Sasori brought his head into his hands, his shoulders slumping. He murmured something that Deidara didn't understand.
"What?"
"I said . . . you misunderstood earlier," Sasori said quietly.
"How could I have misunderstood, un? You said 'no way', then 'no', and then 'no way' again. I'm pretty sure that's a rejection, un."
"No. You misunderstood," Sasori said in a pleading tone. "Let me explain."
". . . fine, un. Explain."
The redhead sighed. "Brat . . . I was in shock. I was saying 'no way' because I couldn't believe that you were asking me that question, not because I was rejecting you."
". . . what are you saying?"
"I'm saying that I wasn't planning to reject you. I was going to say 'yes', Deidara. I was actually planning to ask you to be my boyfriend later on today. I was late to class because I was an emotional wreck because I didn't know how to ask you. You've got to believe me, please."
Deidara gasped. His eyes filled with tears again, but from happiness instead of sadness. He smiled and whispered, "I do believe you".
"Good."
With that said, Sasori used his hand to brush Deidara's bang away from his face and moved his head forwards. He closed his eyes and brushed his lips gently against Deidara's. When he pulled away, Deidara grabbed his head and connected their mouths again, and Sasori wrapped his arms around Deidara's slender neck. They continued kissing happily, oblivious of the students around them.
Until a clay ball hit the back of the blonde's head, and a wooden ball hit Sasori's back.
"Hey!" Deidara yelled. "What was that for?!"
Kisame and Itachi smiled malevolently. "Payback."
"Whatever," muttered Sasori, kissing Deidara again.
"Oh, by the way, you guys are suspended for a week. Public displays of affection are against school rules," Pein stated calmly from his desk.
"Aw, you fucking hypocrite, un."
A/N: So, didja like it? :P
Excuse the character's Out of Character-ness. o_o;