Quiet. That was all he could hear. Dead silence, surrounding him, unbroken save for the sound of his tools against the puppets that were scattered around the room. And even then, the calm was too much for him.
Sasori hadn't spoken a word in weeks. There had been no need to; Pein hadn't sent him on any missions, and he had no reason to leave his room. That, and of course his former partner wasn't there to talk to him.
The Akasuna turned over his latest puppet in his hands, before none too gently tossing it onto a pile of other works of art. He'd done nothing but work on his creations since he'd returned, and now they were piled up all over his chambers, glassy eyes staring at him as they lay collecting dust on the ground.
The trouble was, even though his hands were busy, Sasori's mind was free to wander about. Always his thoughts were on Deidara. Deidara, his once partner, and former lover. The little blonde firework, always wearing that ridiculous grin on his face, and forever chattering with Sasori about something. Slowly but surely, working his way into the redhead's heart, until he finally forced the words, "I love you," past the puppet master's lips-
Sasori put head in his hands and began trembling. And then, after all of that, the blonde just ran off. Why?! Why work so hard to get the Akasuna to return his affections, and then disappear? Why return the feelings, only to later turn about and act as though the words held no meaning?
Most of all, why was Sasori acting like this? Ever since the day they'd met, Sasori had longed for Deidara to vanish and leave him in peace with his puppets. At the thought, Sasori chuckled softly. Slowly, the chuckling grew louder and louder, until he was practically howling with laughter. Jerking around in his seat, he turned to stare at his puppets. Slowly, deliberately, he rose from his seat and walked towards the wooden dolls. "I picked you over him." The laughter faded from his voice, and the painful silence returned to the room. "I picked you over him." He balled his hands into fists, and glared down at the lifeless puppets. "I picked YOU over HIM!" Growling, he slammed his fist into a nearby puppet and crushed in the side of its face.
The next few minutes were nothing but a blur to the puppeteer as all his pent up fury was released upon his once-beloved puppets. The normally calm and collected Akasuna was reduced to violently lashing out at the dolls with unprecedented rage, all common sense gone from his conscious being.
Eventually though, his biological heart demanded a break, and he stopped, doubled over and panting amidst his now shattered puppet collection. He jerked his head up at the sound of the doorknob turning, and watched as Konan tried to step into the room, only to be halted by mounds of broken puppets. "Sasori, what's happen-"
"Get out," the redhead ordered.
"But-"
"GET OUT!" he screamed. With a feral growl, he snatched a jar of poison from his desk and hurled it at the female. Konan let out a shocked cry and ran out of the room, slamming the door shut as she went. The jar made contact with the door and shattered, light green poison slowly dripping down the wood.
Sasori collapsed to his knees, holding his head in his hands with a pained look on his face. "Dammit Deidara…dammit…"
-n-
Meanwhile, Pein was looking over a new mission report with a grim look on his face. "I was worried that this would happen." He sighed and tossed the paper away. "This calls for desperate measures. They're not going to like this, but it's for the sake of the Akatsuki. As well as our lives."
Several hours later the leader was walking down the hallway, a slim brunette male in tow. He and the newcomer proceeded down the hall until he came to Kakuzu's door. He gave the man a look, and when he nodded, Pein knocked on the door. Seconds later, Kakuzu emerged, mask off for once. He looked as though he hadn't slept in days, and gave Pein a glare that could have frozen fire. "What?"
"Whatever happened to respect for authority?" the leader wondered, but shook it off. "Kakuzu, despite our missing members, the Akatsuki still needs to function."
"…"
"So, I've brought you a new partner," Pein explained, quickly motioning to the male as he spoke.
"…A new partner?" Kakuzu asked, a hint of surprise in his tone.
"Yes. You see-" before Pein could finish his statement, Kakuzu's threads were around the new member's throat, and had snapped the newcomer's neck. "Kakuzu, what the hell?!"
"I don't want a new partner," the banker replied with an air of indifference.
"It doesn't matter what you want! You need-"
"If you get me a new partner, I'll kill them," Kakuzu threatened. "I don't care who it is, how strong they are, or any of that shit. Either you get me Hidan back, or I work alone!" Without another word, Kakuzu slammed the door shut in Pein's face.
The leader looked from the door to the fresh corpse and back again before shaking his head. "Even if he's gone, you can't kill the memories of him, can you, Kakuzu?"
-n-
Deidara yawned and stretched out on the ground, lying on his back to look up at the sky. It was a beautifully clear night, and hundreds of stars littered the night sky. "Stars are out, un," he stated.
"Thanks for stating the obvious," Hidan growled from a few feet away. Deidara heard the sound of something being thrown onto the fire behind him; that must mean Itachi had come back from his mission to gather firewood. "Not like we couldn't fucking figure that one out."
"Hidan, hush," Itachi ordered. He curled up close to the fire, staring intently at the flames.
The zealot rolled his eyes but did as told, and stretched out away from the other two. "I don't get what the Jashin-damned deal with stars is, that's all. Dumbass…"
"Sasori showed me how to find some of the constellations, un," Deidara suddenly said aloud. The other two flinched, but said nothing. "There's the big dipper; and if you follow the handle, you can find Polaris. After that-"
"You can see the little dipper," Hidan finished. "And over there, there's Orion."
"Isn't that Gemini?" Deidara asked.
"No," Itachi said. He shifted his gaze away from the fire to look at Hidan. He was about to break their rule, but he had to ask. "Did Kakuzu show you how to find that one?"
The zealot shook his head. "We were always too busy trying to find some crappy shelter or cave to look at the damn stars. He was real good at searching for a place to stay, you know."
"He wanted to keep you safe," Deidara murmured. "Sasori was the same way."
Hidan laughed. "The bastard was just too cheap for an actual hotel room, so he'd settle for anything else." He smirked sadly up at the stars. "It's one of those Jashin-damned quirks about him that I love."
"…Do you miss him, un?"
"Duh." Hidan's grin faded into a frown. "But I doubt he misses me. Asshole probably got a new partner already."
Deidara bit his lip as he gazed up at the stars. He wanted Sasori just as much as Hidan wanted Kakuzu; but he knew that there was nothing left for him with the puppet master. The little love he'd been given by the Akasuna was no doubt gone by now; if he ever saw the redhead again, he'd receive nothing but harsh words and a beating, perhaps even death. Still, avoiding Sasori for the rest of his life had to be better than never having true affection show towards him. "Do you think they miss us?" he quietly asked.
Itachi answered immediately with a, "Kisame doesn't."
Hidan raised a brow at the Uchiha. "What makes you say that? At least the damn shark actually acted like he cared about you-"
"I wiped his memories of me."
Hidan's jaw dropped, and Deidara rolled over onto his stomach to stare at Itachi with wide eyes. "What?!" they gasped.
"He doesn't remember me at all," Itachi continued as a bitter smile appeared on his lips. "Even if we were to cross paths right here and now, all he'd say to me is, 'Who are you?' If he bothered speaking to me at all." He looked at the other two with sadness in his eyes. "It's like everything we did never even happened."
"…" Hidan said nothing, but merely shook his head in disbelief.
Deidara rolled over onto his back once more, and looked up to the stars once more. "We're pathetic, un," he muttered. "Pining over lost loves like this, and rushing off to certain death because of them, un."
"Like we had a choice, asshole," Hidan growled. "It's either stay with heartache, or get the hell outta here and deal with a little heartbreak."
"'Tis better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all," Itachi quoted.
"Whoever said that was really full of it," Hidan declared.
"Un," Deidara agreed, and even Itachi was nodding his head a few moments later.
