Chapter 6: Of Faith and Fun

So, it was confirmed: Privacy was allowed. The girls were free to roam the forest house as often as they pleased, completely unattended, so long as they didn't wander outside. Something about the lack of ability to protect themselves probably left such a feeble impression that the Akatsuki simply weren't concerned.

While the girls hadn't pushed their luck over the last day- strangers, or not, it was comforting to be in one another's presence.

At this particular moment in the still of the afternoon, they sat in each other's company, a circle formed as they stared intensely across a short, brown coffee table. This time to themselves would be handled with care and attention to detail.

Lisa's sharp, dark eyes watched her own hands, then slowly rose to meet the other girls.

Amber's chocolate eyes shifted about a bit nervously before meeting Lisa's, "Remind me..." The brunette began, looking down at her own hands to evade the intensity of eye contact, "...how did you manage to get your hands on these..?"

"They came with me through the little locker trip," She replied briefly, "Pretty sure if my phone came with, these would too."

"But why did you have them in school..? You know how strict they are there..."

"Look, teacher's pet. I've been caught so much with these that I know just how to stash 'em to where no one'll ever know."

Amber's eyes rose, then after a stilled silence, she peered over her shoulders. Her glances were quick, but cautious, looking to be certain on the whereabouts of their captors. "But... if they see these... Won't they make mention..?"

"Forget about 'em," Lisa immediately piped up, ignoring the mixed looks she received from the other four, "We've got privacy rights, so we can do whatever the Hell we want while they're not around, y'see?" Her posture relaxed into a poor hunker forward, her back appearing as though it would most-likely suffer from the lack of structure. She smirked, even uttering a somewhat haughty snicker beneath her breath, "Besides. They probably don't even know what these are."

"We still probably shouldn't push our luck," Hailey huffed, fingers still grazing the dark hand prints on her neck and chest.

"Screw 'em- Oho..." Lisa's little smirk abruptly began to spread, grow, and eventually form into an almost downright devious grin, "Well would you look at that..." With a flick of her wrist, she dropped one of the 'forbidden items' on the table, uttering with a powerful declaration, "Uno!"

Molly's fists clenched tightly, gripping the sleeves of her jacket in against her palms and puffing her cheeks up, "Aww! I knew I shouldn't have thrown out a red card!"

"Uno~!" Hailey blissfully twittered in tow, dropping her card on the table with a proud smile.

In that moment, Kisame entered the room. He didn't look at them at first, but then, his beady eyes took lock on them with careful consideration. It seemed almost as if he were looking at each one of them to take his head-count.

While most avoided eye contact with him, Hailey raised her hand, flicking her fingers slightly, "Oh, Kisame... Perfect timing, I have a question for you!"

She spoke with a surprising amount of invitation.

'Are they... On good terms..?' Amber thought silently to herself. She couldn't imagine. All she had managed to attain from a night with Sasori and Deidara was an hour-long debate on art gone philosophical and a sleepless night filled with recurring sensations of impending doom... So, a typical night, just with debate.

The shark man approached, leaning his head far off to the left to cause a crack through his neck and subsequent sounds of popping and snapping from his rolling shoulders, "What is it?"

Amber's free hand flopped gently across her upper chest, gripping onto the fabric of her shirt until it bunched between her fingers, 'Ew...' She thought, though made considerable effort not to let her face contort into the disgust that she felt. And did he have to lean across the table that way? Without the cloak of before, there was just... rough, blue skin.. Hadn't they heard of shirts?

"Where is everyone?" Hailey motioned her hand in a round-about circular swipe.

She had a point. Throughout the course of the day, no one in particular had come through the area unless taking a brief look in their direction, and even then, it was scarce.

"You know about us, ah?" He leaned back, folding his arms across his chest as he looked to each of them, "Then you should know we're too busy to wander around this place all day."

Lisa, across the way, seemed to be paying half attention, occasional shifts of her eyes going to Kisame, before darting to the table, back to her hand, and eventually coming full-circle again. "Then maybe you should make your job easier and let us go."

"Mmm..." His gruff, almost gurgling voice dragged on before the thoughtful sound died off quickly in favor of an abrupt, "I don't think so."

"It was expected..." Hailey trailed quietly, watching the shark swordsman walk away.

"I feel... gross." Lisa drawled, sitting up a bit straighter.

Molly leaned up to the table, tipping her head to get a better view of Lisa's face, which seemed, if anything, just more uncomfortable, "Are you sick?"

"Sick as Hell." She replied dryly through the walls of her teeth, "Am I the only one that thought shark looked pretty damn tasty there..?"

"Are...you hungry..?" Molly questioned inquisitively, though the blanching of Lisa in reply showed that was the last thing she was talking about.

"Probably more thirsty than anything else..." The way that last line came out caused Amber's eyes to suddenly pop open at full attention, the medium brown irises slowly sliding over in Hailey's direction, who seemed to meet her with the same mix of confusion and distress.

Amber shot up from her seat, setting down her cards, "Right, well." The brunette pointed towards the kitchen, swiveling on her heel, "I'm going to grab a bite, so I'll just get you something, okay?" Hailey bounced up right behind her, doing the same whilst easing through the legs of the other girls, "I am right behind you!"

"What?!" Lisa popped up from her seat, only keen on digging her hands aggressively in her pockets while glaring after them, "What happened to stick together!?"

"We're still here!" Molly blissfully replied, completely ignorant to the happenings around her.

Lisa's dark eyes shifted to the two 'pipsqueaks' she found herself in the company of, seeing Molly just beaming away as always, and Skye looking away, cheeks aglow, likely from the comments from just a moment ago. "..Deal me in for next hand." She quickly said, dropping the cards on the table and deciding on trailing the other two for a little harassment.

"Wha..." Molly raised the cards, eyes popping white as she flailed her arms quickly through the air, "What happened to sticking together..?!"

"You know, I thought it was important to stick together too..."

The two small girls slowly turned to their sides, seeing Tobi draped over the edge of the couch suddenly. The way his body lied limply screamed melodramatic in a way that very few were able to capture.

"That's good." Molly absent-mindedly chippered, gathering up the cards together, "Hey, Skye, what do you think they're talking about i-"

SIGH.

Skye and Molly slowly turned their heads in silence towards the swirly-masked individual that continued to drag out the loud drawl of breath. They waited the full who-knows-how-many seconds until he had finally finished releasing what seemed like every bit of breath in his lungs for that pent up sigh. Then, slowly, as before, Molly began, "So what do you think they're talking about in the ki-"

"Wha- Hey! I'm sighing!" He flailed his arms lively-like, oozing child-like, "So you're supposed to ask 'What's wrong Tobi?'"

Skye slowly sank to peek over the blond's shoulders, leaving Molly to hesitantly beg the question, "Well. What's wrong, Tobi?"

"Oh! I'm glad you asked!" He sanked down into the spot on the couch at their side, crossing his legs to sit criss-cross, "Okay. So. I was all ready to go out on mission today! But when I checked Deidara's room like he told me to - he was already gone! He just left me like that!" He folded his arms, and despite his face being entirely covered, one could clearly make out the deep pout he had on his face beneath the mask, "Can you believe it?!"

"No!" Molly gasped dramatically, leaning forward, "That's so mean!"

"I know!" He dropped his head, looking to his side - wait... did... was that a tear that just fell from his eye hole? "Now what will I do for fun..?"

"..Don't you worry, Tobi!" Molly clenched her fist, setting it against her chest in a way that very tightly resembled the scout salute in Attack on Titan, "We will help you!"

Skye's head shot up, blue eyes bugging with panic, "W-what..?!"

Meanwhile, in the kitchen area, Lisa sat up on the counter, waving her hands in an attempt to plead her case. "Look, think what you want, but it's already been a pretty long time since I've seen some nice muscles. Don't act like you weren't thinking it."

"Was I attracted to the anthro shark?" Amber folded her arms, leaning back straight on the counter, "I can't say so."

"Look, shark man or not, he's pretty good looking. Yeah, princess?"

Hailey looked up from her glass of water, seeming to have been completely ignoring the conversation at hand, "Hm?"

"Okay, whatever." The black haired girl twisted her lips into something akin to a pout, scoffing under her breath, "But I know you guys are thinking about this."

"I'm not." Amber piped up quickly, almost defensively, looking away briskly. She could admit Deidara was a rather attractive fellow, but she wasn't thinking about throwing herself at him like a maniac. Besides - at the end of the day, they were still captives, right? Still, she couldn't help but feel the way her cheeks begin to slightly warm.

Hailey turned her nose up, turning it away briskly, "No." She replied. One would immediately think she was thinking herself too prestigious for a group of cosplayers, or maybe just thinking rationally enough to deny the claim since they were kidnappers as well. Instead, however, she merely shruggered her little shoulders, "I'm a faithful girl with a boyfriend back home. He's probably worried sick.." Her fingers traced her bruised collarbone, frown growing on her face.

"Boyfriends. Euch," Lisa plucked up her glass of water, turning back towards the living room, "I guess so."

The trio returned to the living room, though not far over the threshold, they came to an abrupt, collective pause, staring at the chaos that was taking place before their eyes.

"OUR ENEMIES ARE BEFORE US!" Molly declared, blond hair covering an eye, pointing a finger in the three's direction, assumed discarded Akatsuki cloak tied around her shoulders, "STRIKE, TOBI! YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE THAT CAN DO IT!"

"YES, DEIDARA! I KNOW! I'M THE ONLY REAL HERO IN THE AKATSUKI!"

"No." Lisa responded simply, walking back into the kitchen, "Fuck this."

Immediately at her denial, the masked male was running quickly towards Amber and Hailey - though soon, only Amber, as the latter had fled into safety beneath the table.

"Ah.. T-Tobi wait!"

But this was the Tobi train. And they hadn't invented breaks.

A/N: Helloooo everyone! ^^ How are you? I'm good, thank you (o_o;;; if you asked.).

I hope that you enjoyed this chapter!

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