16 years later

It was a rather sunny afternoon, early summer, yet there was one girl who decided to spend her day inside with a book by the window.

Up on the second floor in her and her sisters' bedroom she had a nice view over the road out of town. The long road that they always took when they came to pick her up.

Iris sighed again as she looked up from her book and the road was still dead. Sure they hadn't said a time they would show up but they usually came so much earlier than this. Had they forgotten..? No, no she was sure they knew, she had talked to Deidara not many days ago, they wouldn't forget about her.

Ten more minutes passed and she kept reading to keep herself occupied. When her chapter ended she looked up again. And there in the distance where two silhouette walking with quick steps towards the orphanage, one short and broad figure and one tall, both dressed in black cloaks.

Iris lit up and shoved her book down her already packed backpack and ran down the stairs to find her mother.

"Oh, are they here now?" Seo chuckled entertained as the girl stumbled into the kitchen to hug her goodbye. Iris nodded rapidly and gave her mother a quick hug before she turned out again.

"Hey! Is that all I get? You'll be gone all summer!" Seo whined with a smirk as she pulled back the blond girl by the arm and forced her to stay longer.

"Right, sorry mom." Iris replied with attitude but with a grin she let the woman hug her a bit longer. Seo fluffed her blond hair and gave her forehead a kiss before she could let her go.

"You be nice to them now. And take care of yourself too, but you can always come back here if they're too much, thought." Seo said motherly as they parted ways.

Iris didn't even bother to run back into the yard to say goodbye to her half siblings and the orphans. They knew she was leaving today so most had wished her goodbye at the breakfast table since they all wanted to run out and play. She was among the older kids so she preferred a nice day inside with her books instead of out in the sun. And she especially didn't want to start any games today since she knew she could be picked up at any moment.

"Dad! Papa!" The young girl cried happily as she ran outside. Her dad's stopped in their tracks and waited for her come to them.

Smiling she hugged the taller man who lifted her up laughing. "Woow, shouldn't we say hello to you mother too, honey? Hm." He asked as he let her sit on his hip like a little kid.

The other, shorter man instantly tensed up and somehow managed to look even grumpier then before but Iris shook her head which calmed him down.

Deidara glared at Hiruko since he knew Sasori was hurried for all the wrong reasons but he didn't argue. Iris was excited to be with them so she probably wanted to get going as fast as possible too.

"Alright, then let's go." Deidara huffed and put down his daughter. After stretching his back out moaning he turned around and the three of them started walking back up the road. "Maaan, you're not so young anymore, Iris. I can't be lifting you, hm." Deidara joked and puffed her side.

Iris giggled at her stupid dad and quickly turned to give her other father a hello but she stopped herself seeing how his eyes were locked with the road. His chakra was so dark today, maybe it was best not to speak with him.

Iris said hello quickly and after Sasori grunted a hello back she nodded and turned to keep a conversation with Deidara.

They walked on as the two blonds kept up a heated conversation about everything possible. Sasori walked in silence beside them, not showing any signs of listening or caring. Or so it seemed as Iris glanced at him every now and then.

Sasori seemed so worried and tense but Deidara seemed so joyful. Was he only trying to keep the mood up to hide something bad or was Sasori really just in a bad state? That was just as possible but she couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

"I'm not gonna lie, we're not doing so well right now…" Deidara sighed as he saw his girl look at his partner a little longer than the other times. 'I knew it!' Iris thought as she looked back up on her younger father. There was something bad going on that they didn't want to talk about but apparently they had too.

Deidara gave his daughter a reassuring smile to ease her a little before continuing. She noticed how he didn't even turn to Sasori for support like he normally would do. It was kind of scary to see them so distant to each other.

"We're not heading to Amegakure this time... Our headquarter is… Actually all of Ame is in the possession of the five great nations, hm." Deidara said while his gaze did the same as Sasoris and focused on the road ahead. "They've always been planning to take us out since we're all wanted criminal in our respective countries but we never thought they would actually attack since that technically would mean they declared war on us. And they won that war just because we- …"

Deidara took a moment to think before he changed tracks on his tale. "We all made it out in one piece but Pein lost the county. He's furious and everyone else is completely taken off guard. It's been a tense few weeks since we've been on the run but we're finally starting to settle back in, hm."

Deidara slowed down and stretched out his hand for the shaken girl who had started to walk slightly slower as his explanation went on. Sasori was the first to come to a full stop but Iris was a close second and as she grabbed Deidaras' hand he stopped too.

"And you still want me to stay with you this summer?" Was the first thing she asked. "I mean, that's quite the big deal! You don't- you don't have any safe land, I'll be in danger-"

Deidara huffed and smiled as he fully embraced her. "True, but you've always been in danger when being with us, you know that honey. The only difference now is that we're staying in a different location. And you're trained for this, you know what to do if things go bad, hm."

Iris stared at Deidara with cringed eyebrows for awhile before looking down on Sasori trying to get his word on this. He simply kept refusing to be part of the conversation and Deidara quickly made sure she focused back on him.

"If you want to go back we won't stop you, but we both really miss you and we want to hang out with you." He said. "I think we all need a little sunshine in our lives right now, hm."

Iris slowly nodded and let herself give out a weak smile. Her smile did grown though as they started walking again.

"Could we go fishing then?" She asked as she tried to plan whatever activities they could do as a family. Deidara lit up and squeezed her hand lovingly as he replied. The two blonds had soon forgotten their worries as they started planning a fishing trip and other trips they could take. The only one still worried was the quiet puppeteer.

It was hard to ignore the very clear mould creeping along the celling and the very visible cracks in the walls. The floors were either dusty or burnt, the whole place was completely run down. The corridors were smaller than the ones back in their old hideout and the three of them could no longer walk beside each other. With Hirukos clumpy body in the front and the two blonds following they walked through the house. Iris could swear it was colder here too. Thank god it was summer.

Sasori kept going as Deidara stopped at their destination but he didn't give his boyfriend any attention, instead he turned to show Iris her new room. She hated to see Sasori leave, it only made her feel more and more unwanted, but she had learned not to disturb him when he was in such a mood so she tried focusing on listening to Deidara.

The blond man opened the door with fake enthusiasm and a 'ta-da' but he cut the act off seeing his girl wasn't impressed. Her already disturbed calmness got even more shaken as she laid eyes on the room. It was very small, barely fitting the bed and the nightstand. There was no closet and plain walls, of course the walls looked to be in a little better condition then the ones she'd seen so far but it was still pretty bad. And the small window was sitting so high up that she would have to stand on the bed to reach it and the blinds.

"It's not great… It quite… It's a lot worse then you're used to, I'm sorry, hm." Deidara sighed as the two of them made their way in. "You don't even have your own bathroom, but-!" With a smile he pulled out a chest from under the bed as Iris jumped up on her sleeping place. "You can put your clothes here, just make sure it's closed so nothing crawls in, and both Sasori and I are living just across the hall if you want to sleep with us instead. We can move in an extra bed. And there's a bathroom with a shower down the hall that you and Konan share, we've excluded it just for you women so you'll have privacy. She's living just above it, hm."

Deidara shoved the chest back in under the bed, got up and stretched his back out again while seeing what Iris what thinking. It was still clear that she was troubled but seeing how much thought they had put into her feeling welcomed she just had to smile warmly. If Deidara said all would go well then all would go well, she trusted him of course.

"I can sleep here alone but if it's too cold or something I could move in with you? I'm used to sleeping alone when I visit anyways." She hummed and crawled over to the top of the bed to pull out the drawer on the nightstand. There was a box of matches and a few candles there even though there was a functional bedside lamp on the nightstand. She closed the drawer and sat back down on the bed as Deidara joined her.

"It's a lot smaller then at your moms though." He commented as Iris started playing with his long hair. "And usually you sleep with the other girls' right, hm?"

"Yeah, sure I'm used to more people..." She replied sassy. "...But I still like it better to be alone. But I can't have my own room back with mom, it would be unfair."

"Can't argue with that, hm." Deidara snorted.

"Sasori no Danna, we need to talk, hm..." Deidara said as he opened the door to his partners' new workshop. After knocking and waiting for a few minutes without a reply Deidara sighed and decided to just walk in. Sasori wouldn't open or reply; he never did that when he was in a bad mood, so he would have to take action himself. His partner was standing bend over the only table in the room with his back to the door when he walked in.

Sasori flinched when the intruder opened the door instead of going away when being ignored and spat out a sharp "About what?!"

Deidara sighed again and closed the door before walking up to his partner and lover. This was going to be a long night.