We were soon joined at the table by Deidara and Tobi, who Hidan scowled at as he eventually came and sat down too with crockery for everyone. One by one, the rest of them trickled in. The only one that didn't show was the green haired one- Zetsu, if I recall correctly. Everyone was kind of just having their own separate conversations, which I listened to.
"Why are you making such a fuss Hidan? Just shut your mouth." Kakuzu spat, clicking his phone off and sliding it back into his pocket. Hidan's hand gestured in the air threateningly
"But we banned Tobi from eating with us after he disrespected Lord Jashin!" He nagged, bringing the attention to the others at the table.
"Not this again." I heard Pein mutter, and Konan sigh.
"You mean you banned him and threatened to steal his shit if he came back that one time, which none of us agreed on." Kakuzu folded his arms over his chest, leaning back leisurely in his seat, clearly unimpressed with Hidan's efforts to try and kick Tobi, who hadn't spoken a word, from the table.
"Wait, who the hell is 'Lord Jashin'?" I tried to keep quiet, questioning Deidara.
"Some crazy fictional dude from a comic." Deidara mumbled in between chewing his gum, breath smelling of peppermint.
"Fuck off, he's a god! And it's a good comic. Don't knock it 'til you try it." He finally sat his ass down, grumbling, after working up such a storm. Food was finally served in large bowls and plates, in the center of the dining table- where everyone could just take what they liked. It was just Chinese food, but this way seemed a lot more classier than just eating it out of take-out containers and watching TV like I was used to at my uncle's house. I sat at the end of the table, with Deidara, Tobi, Konan and Pein on my left, and Sasori, Hidan, Kakuzu and Kisame on my right. Itachi sat at the other end, opposite me, waiting, just as I was, for food to be passed down. I ignored his stare for now.
I dished some plain rice, sweet and sour battered pork and and a little black bean beef onto my plate to try. I noticed Sasori didn't have much on his plate, and neither did Deidara.
"You two aren't big eaters?" I gestured to their plates with my pair of unopened chopsticks. Deidara shrugged.
"I really only like simple foods- my man Sasori is more of a picky eater." Sasori rolled his eyes and dug into his food. I did the same. Before taking my first bite, however, Itachi spoke up.
"Ayano, may you please pass down the rice." I despised the fact that one, he used my full name- so traditionally, and two, that he had just caught me trying to shove almost an entire piece of pork into my mouth. How sloppy. With a soft smile, I placed my chopsticks down and picked up the bowl to pass to Kakuzu, who also passed it along the line, until it reached him, in which he gave a small nod as thanks. Was he always so serious and formal? He reminded me a little of Rei. Which made me remember to text Ivy about all this later; she's probably wondering why she hadn't heard from me.
I was overall surprised at how civilised and mature everyone acted, for teenagers. I mean, we weren't all that young. We were all at least 17-18. But still. They're guys, and sometimes guys can be crazy and reckless. Maybe I hadn't seen the whole picture yet. Or maybe Konan really kept them all in line. We all ate supper relatively fast, except for me. I was always a slow eater, I'd always be the last one at the dinner table on Christmas and Thanksgiving, or just any meal in general with my family. I picked up my pace as everyone started to clean up, and I didn't finish what was on my plate until Itachi came to check up on me.
"Are you done?" His tone came off as cold, impatient, yet still willing to wait if need be. I decided not to test it. He offered his hand out and I handed him my plate, standing from my seat and simultaneously almost knocking into him. I muttered a 'thanks' and went back to find Sasori and Deidara. Itachi was the most intimidating yet.
I found the two of them in their room- Sasori at the desk and Deidara laying in his top bunk, bouncing a ball against the ceiling and catching it over and over. I remained in the doorway, since the door was open. It almost took a whole minute, but eventually, Sasori realised I was standing there and let out a soft chuckle, as if he knew I was there all along.
"What are you laughing at, hm?" He didn't take his eye off the ball until I started laughing too, finally noticing I was there. "What? how long have you been standing there?" His face scrunched up. "Were you eavesdropping, hm?"
"Why? Were you talking about something secretive?" I teased, Sasori's lips curving into a smirk as he turned to face me.
"I thought it would be more amusing if you didn't know, Deidara." Deidara threw the ball at his friend, hitting him the shoulder. His aim wasn't very good.
"Danna..!"
"..I told you not to call me that." A 'tsk' sound left his now frowning lips. Confused, I wandered over to the desk Sasori sat at, resting my arms on the back of his chair. I tried to ease the tension.
"So, what are you working on?" I was interested. Laid out on the desk was a small box complete with a set of tiny tools, and a wooden stand with a wire rod attached to it. The wire was simply supporting a wooden sculpture, resembling a some sort of animal that I couldn't quite make out yet. Was this Sasori's work? "What.. What is that?"
"It's a work in progress. I'm unsure as to what it will be, yet." He spoke calmly, taking a sharp, needle-like tool in his hand and scratching small details into the timber. I kept listening. "I take regular blocks of wood and cut them down to a size I like, and sand them down to the basic shape." Carefully, he spun the stand around to the other side and added more detail in the back with the same tool. "This tool is good for small things. You can use these types of tools for clay, as well-"
Our little art session was cut short by the sudden yelling coming from the hallway.
"Don't you DARE, you fucker!" It was Hidan. What's he yelling about now?
"Does he always yell this much?" No response.
"I mean, you're not even trying to stop me!"
"What part of 'Don't you dare' do you NOT understand?!" There was a growl, followed by a howl of laughter. I went over and peaked my head out the doorway, Tobi zipping past me and into the room, with some kind of book in his hand. I couldn't rely on my feet to move out of the way for Hidan, who was now bounding into me, knocking me down beneath him. The weight of his body was a lot on top of my own. How much did he work out? I'm pretty sure we bumped foreheads, but Hidan was up on his feet a whole lot quicker than I was, while I was still overcoming the pain.
"Fuck's sake." He gnashed his teeth, before seeing me on the ground, flinching, expecting to be hit or something. He sighed grumpily, taking my arm and pulling me up in one swift motion. Without another word, he left, and the three of us turned to Tobi.
"What a gentleman." Tobi was sitting on Sasori's bunk, clutching the book to his chest. "What the hell was that?"
"I was just messing with him." He let out sigh of content, chucking the book down in front of him. "I just stole his stupid comic." He giggled malevolently.
It was around 10PM by now, and I finally had had the chance to get a hold of my belongings again- now I knew what the time was and could text Ivy. She sent me a bunch of winking smileys, asking if there were any of them that I fancied. I scoffed aloud to myself, and peered up from my phone. I was sitting in the living room, along with Kisame, Zetsu and Tobi. The three of them were playing games. There wasn't really anyone present that I find appealing. I mean, they were all pretty cool, but I'd only known them for a day- half of them were still somewhat scary to even be in the same room with.
"Hey, new girl." My eyes drifted over to Kisame, raising my eyebrows in response. "Wanna play?" I glanced up at the screen- it looked like they were playing the notorious Call of Duty.
"Call of Duty? No thanks."
"What, afraid you're going to lose?" He only taunted me.
"I've just never really played it before, but whatever. I'll try." How hard could it be? I took the controller from the blue haired boy and another round started. The pressure was real. I could feel them secretly judging everything I did; but somehow, our team managed to win and I earned a pat on the back. My face flushed a little.
"Play another, but try sneaking around the other side of that main building." Zetsu offered, and I took his advice. That was the first time I'd actually heard Zetsu speak. I did as he suggested and was able to kill two people on my own. They all cheered, and were still proud even when our team lost that round.
"Here." I just laughed and handed the controller back. "Wouldn't want to ruin your reputation." Kisame just grinned and agreed. Though, a few rounds later, they gave up due to lag starting to kick in.
"Can we play something else?" Tobi suddenly piped up, jumping to his feet. I yawned- not a single one of them had even gone to bed yet. "Everyone can play this one!" He mused.
"What's your suggestion, Tobi?"
"Truth or Dare!" Kisame looked over to me, then at Zetsu. We all were thinking the same thing. Really?
"That's like, a kids game, Tobi. No." Kisame stated, putting the controller away.
"But- But we might learn something about the new girl!"
I felt like a new weight had just been dropped onto my shoulders. Truth or Dare? I didn't want to be exposed- or let alone, embarrassed, in front of these guys. I'll see them every day at school and they'll all laugh at me and make fun of me if something slipped out from a truth, or I did something stupid from a crazy dare. I had a feeling these guys weren't the ones to easily forget things like that. Eyes were on me now.
"I don't-"
"Aya, there you are! What are you doing with these guys?" Deidara suddenly was in the room, behind me- why was he looking for me?
"We were just about to play Truth or Dare with Aya. Why not join us?" I shot Kisame a glare, and he winked at me. More people had gathered now. There was no way I was getting out of this one.
