I shot up, my eyes wide and darting across the room. I sucked in a breathe rapidly, again and again, almost hyperventalating as I tried to react, wait a second, I paused while my chest heaved, I realized I was a dreaming.

"I'm right here," A voice came, I turned my head.
Deidara, my boyfriend was with me, on the sofa opposite the one I'd fallen asleep on, sculpting some nonexplosive clay and watching television. He ate flavored potato chips by the truck load these days. I lay back silently and watched him, eyes still wide. He shoveled chips into his mouth with his left hand, his right hand on the sculpture, and his eyes locked on me. His mouths on his palms had unfortunately not made the trip with us.
"He have you again?" came his voice calm and almost soft. I nodded. Ever since my return, I'd been having a horrible reoccurring dream about Madara. About him slitting my throat just like he had done to my friend, the king of the summoning deer. All I could do was struggle and scream, not one ever came to help.
"These movies are amazing," Deidara commented as the credits rolled. We'd been sitting in my living room for two weeks, watching movie after movie, only really moving to eat a meal, sometimes with my parents, or sleep in my bed.
"Yeah, I don't like the cheesy ones so much," I replied very dryly. That was evident as I'd clearly fallen asleep during the film. I knew he was just trying to get my mind of it.

"Do you wanna go somewhere tonight yeah?" He asked, another movie was starting and he was again glued to the screen like a three year old. I didn't get it. They had TV back where he came from, I supposed he just never had time to watch it. On the other hand, it was sort of nice though, he'd learned so much in such a short time being here with the aid of the TV.
"Maybe we should go," I paused to think, taking an extra second to calm down a little more. We'd already been to the movie theater and the mall this week,where else could be fun? "We could just go out to eat and go from there," I decided. He didn't say anything.
It was almost as surreal as when I'd fallen into the alternate universe. Deidara was still here, he was still my boyfriend, and we were living with my parents. My mom and dad had been completely against it, they didn't want this strange and possibly mentally deranged twenty something year old in their home, much less sharing a room and bed with their still teenage daughter but I insisted, telling them I couldn't bare to be without him, and even then they refused to allow it. We did it anyway without their okay.

I didn't blame them after the story we'd told the authorities. His post ninja war moodiness did not help with his case. They both had mixed emotions about him, my mother hated him, and she'd go out of her way to stay away from him. She hid in her room mostly until my dad came home, and then we'd go upstairs after dinner at her request. My father liked Deidara though, he'd laugh and joke with him even, and they got along really well thankfully.

My mother descended the stairs and without speaking slipped on a pair of sandals and walked out the front door. She was gone long enough to walk to the end of the drive, get the mail and walk back.
"You got your GED, uh, Deidara," she said flipping through mail. I hated how my mom pronounced his name. No matter how many times I corrected her she still pronounced it wrong. She threw the manilla envelope on the coffee table in front of him and continued with her own mail.
"Thanks Karen," he said picking it up. She couldn't even stand him enough to hand it to him. I was thankful he ignored all of her mean spirited remarks and actions.
"I'm proud of you," I beamed, getting up and moving to sit next to him as he opened it. We never told anyone he got all his smarts from the ninja academy. He'd picked up English extremely quickly in addition to what he was learning on the television and his skills in math and science boosted his final test grade. He returned the smile and pulled out the certificate. He held it in his left hand which was now chip crumb free, which he had whipped on his pants, and wrapped his right hand around me and pulled me close.

"Now you can go to collage," My mom stated from the kitchen where she was leaning over the table writing a check. I wasn't sure who she directed that at. I refused to sign up when I returned because Deidara couldn't go with me. Deidara couldn't go because he didn't have a diploma.

"Yeah," I shot back. She wasn't about to take that tone with me, "Yeah we can," I put an extra emphasis on we.

"I don't know how you think were going to put him though collage," she said, standing up straight and walking to the stove. I sighed.

"I don't know, its not like my dad is a doctor or anything, and you know, its not like he can apply for federal aid or get a grant or something," I replied, just to see how far I could push her before she got angry.

She turned and gave me a look and was about to open her mouth when I heard front door open. My eye went to the clock, five meant my dad was home. I could hear nails clicking against our hard wood floors, our German Shepard, ironically named Shep, was the first to great my dad.

"Hello family!" My dads voice chimed. I scooted away from Deidara a little, but left his arm around my middle.

"Hi dad!" I smiled as his bearded face came around the corner from the entryway. He crossed the floor, Shep on his heels, jumping and barking all the way until a hand on his head quieted him. He reached the kitchen after giving our dog some attention and wrapped his arms around my mother, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"Lets go," I said to Deidara, looking away from them and getting up off the couch and stretching a bit. I felt like I'd been sitting in this living room for days, oh wait, I had been.

"Go get ready, I gotta have a talk with junior here," I turned to see my dad walking towards us. He didn't look angry, I looked to Deidara who didn't seem worried.

"Go ahead," my dad assured with a smile, "I'm not gonna beat him up," I was sort of hesitant to leave, but turned and walked away anyway.

I ascended the stairs and opened the door to my bedroom, the one Deidara and I currently shared. Cloths were thrown across the floor, a layered mess of dark cloth, jeans and t-shirts, blouses and socks. Dumb knickknacks, ones I'd bought and ones he'd made lay on every flat surface. It looked very lived in, everything of his mixed with mine. It was disorganized, mostly dirty, and perfect, all at the same time.

I dressed quickly, pulling on a deep purple scarf on and throwing on a little make up for good measure. When I came back down, Deidara had my coat in his hand, and his own on. I was a little taken back, Deidara hadn't ever done anything like this for me before, maybe they had done something strange. I didn't say anything, just took my coat and grabbed my car keys from the pocket.

I drove my dads old car, and by old, I mean only a few years old. Being a doctor, if he wanted a new car he got one. It was black on the outside, and silverish leather lined the inside. I didn't know the make or model, I didn't much care. I pulled from our driveway before Deidara was even buckled in.

"You seem off un," he stated, his tone sounding . That was the only thing I hated about relationships. You never let anything that was bothering you go, at least we didn't.

"Yeah, I don't know, I'm just sort of," I paused, using a highway ramp as an excuse to think, "I'm sick of everything," I concluded. He knew that though. I'd known him for about a week when I told him that. I had liked his world better, and I had wanted to stay, but I was too caught up in the moment of the world ending to think. It was easier just to bring Deidara with me.

"Your dad gave me a hundred dollar bill," Deidara said ,shifting and pulling a crisp green bill from his pocket. I looked over for a moment, and then back to the road.

"No way," I said, a bit astonished. It wasn't like him to give out money like that. He usually gave just enough cash to go do whatever we wanted to do and gas to get there, too much money was an excuse to keep us out all night. Being a typical dad he wanted his daughter home early.

"He said to take you somewhere nice," He reached his arm over to lay the money on my lap. I could hear the smirk in his voice, "Lets go get booze,"

As tempting as that was, I needed to drive us home.

"Ain't you gonna buy me dinner first?" I asked, using my best stuck up, nagging girlfriend voice. It always made him smile.

"Sure,"

I smirked and glanced over at him, just 'sure' huh? I got an idea to take us to the most unhealthy restaurant in town, and quickly got over in the right hand lane to get on the off ramp. The quick reduction in speed had Deidara clutching the arm rest on the door. He still wasn't really used to cars, it wasn't the speed that bothered him, it was more the fact he couldn't control his own movement.

I made several turns after getting off the highway, finally pulling into a local restaurant chain called 'fry 'ems,' which sold of all kinds of fried food in small quantities so a person could order lots. Seating ourselves in the middle of the restaurant, a waiter was soon with us.

"One order of onion rings, two orders of mozzarella sticks, a plate of chicken, uh, french frys, uh, an onion blossom too maybe, and uh, maybe a plate of oreos?" I asked, the waiter just nodded. He actually looked a bit impressed, yes, the portions were small, but not that small. That was a lot of food for two people! He was gone in an instant. I stirred my drink with my straw.

"Do you miss home?" I asked a bit absentmindedly.

"Not really hm," I didn't figure so. He could finally relax, no longer being a wanted criminal. I missed his home. I missed the care free, nomadic life, however hard and dangerous it might have been. I missed Aki. I probably wouldn't see him again, ever. That disturbed me, almost as much as pushing that homeless man though the portal so Deidara could stay. I had to think fast at that point, it was either that or the world explode. I didn't know if that man had family, I didn't know if he was caring for another person, or anything about him, just selfishly pushed him.

Yes it closed the portal, yes it saved the world, yes Deidara was still here, but it ate at me. Was the selfish sacrifice I made for me or for the world? It stopped the world ending but only because I caused it. I tried to get myself to believe that he was doing better in that world. He could have a fresh start, possibly a better life, or he could have also been crushed in the falling building.

"What cha thinken' about un?" Deidara's voice snapped me back to he real world.

"Nothing, uh, the usual, how do you deal with.." I trailed off, he hadn't gone though exactly the same thing I had, however he'd seen death, he'd killed in fact, and he never acted like it bothered him.

"I just don't think about it," he said simply, and pulled out a pen and flipped his napkin over. He was going to try to distract me again, "Look at this, do you have a pen?"

I shook my head and looked around. A pen had been left on top of a bill folder that people placed their credit cards and money into to pay. I got up and grabbed it.

"Alright so, I always thought your name was Mei, M-E-I," he drawlled, spelling the letters and writing them in the english alphabet, and then wrote them again in his lettering, the curvy other world language, Japanese maybe, I wasn't sure if it was different.

"But your name is really May, M-A-Y," he said a bit faster this time, again writing my name in english and then Japanese, "but May, M-A-Y, isn't part of our language, its english, but you can use the month's name, Satsuki, which you can use as a given name too. Isn't that cool?" He explained as he write Satsuki in english for me. He then pushed it over to me so I could have a look.

"Yeah," I agreed, looking it over. That was so long and complicated, I couldn't help but stare at the napkin and try and make sense of it all. What a wonderful distraction. I let the name 'Satsuki' ghost over my lips. What a beautiful name.

"Don't you think its funny that we speak the same language but couldn't read each others writing?" I asked, pushing the napkin back to him as the food came. He nodded and waited until the staff left before responding with,

"Alternate universes, am I right?" as he got an extra plate they'd brought and started picking food off of the larger plates. I smiled and did the same. The rest of dinner was spent relatively silent. Three plates later, I was feeling a bit sorry I'd done eaten so much. Deidara gave them the hundred and they brought back change and boxes.

We were back in the car in no time, speeding off to the corner party store. Deidara had a state identification that came with his package of important things from the government and with it, being of legal age, he could buy us as much coconut rum as we had money for. He did just that, returning with a large bag full of gummy bears, two medium sized bottles of rum and a two litter of cherry cola. It was only seven thirty when we headed home.

Deidara was the first in the house, taking our bag of party favors upstairs, while I stayed down stairs and talked with my parents, gave my dad back his money and just ran general diversion. After putting away the restaurant food , I left for my room with a DVD.

Deidara already had our drinks ready, and putting in the movie, I lay back on the bed with him. I took my first drink, still feeling a bit bloated from the food, and sighed. The lamp on the other side of the room was broken, giving the room a romantic sort of lighting. It was quiet, very quiet for a long time. The cheesy movie had just started to get good.

"What are you thinking about un?" He asked, I could hear the straw sipping up the last of the liquid in the cup, and he got up momentarily to pour himself another, using far more rum than cola.

"Not a lot, you?" I responded, leaning back further into the pillows of my two person bed.

"I dunno, its just been one hell of a life, you know?" he drawled, coming back to lay with me. He gently wrapped his arm around my middle and kissed my cheek. He smelled like rum and as I moved my head to look him in the eyes, I found he tasted like rum as well as he gently kissed my lips. His lips worked against mine, my hands meet his jawline on either side of his head as he snaked his arms further around me to pull me closer. Where his drink had gone I didn't know but mine was tipping with the angle until finally the cup bent and the mixed drink spilled all down the front of me.

"Shit," I swore as he pulled away from my mouth, a sly smirked played across his lips. He'd planned it that way all along. He helped me pull the material over my head and nearly crushed me against the bed as he dove back in for more kisses.