Hey guys! I'm soo sorry it took so long to upload another chapter, ugh I feel so bad! :( But juggling school work and writer's block ain't an easy task. But fear not! Now that I'm done with my first year of College, I'm sure (or hope) I'll be able to make more frequent uploads :) Keepin' positive here! As usual, R&R please and I hope you enjoy this lil' chapter :D
"Da da da da~" Tobi sang off key as he smeared some strawberry jelly on a toast. He had some bits of it smudged on his mask as he was making a complete mess out of such a simple snack.
"This looks yummy!" He chimed after piling a load of jelly on two toasts. He tried to balance all the gooey substance as he brought one toast up to his mask, detaching the bottom part of it before eating the whole thing in one bite. Humming with satisfaction, he repeated the act with the other toast.
"Mm~"
Right as he lowered his mask again, Deidara came in, but instantly paused and raised an eyebrow at the kid's jelly coated mask.
" The hell do you have on your fac-err mask, dimwit?" He sneered, catching himself halfway before going over to the fridge.
"It's jelly senpai!" Tobi cheerfully replied, not bothered at all by the blond's choice of insult for him. He was Tobi, after all.
"You want some, senpai?" He asked, earning a snort from him in return.
"No, especially not from you, un." He shut the fridge door as he brought out a gallon of milk in hand, and now began to search the cupboard for a cup. Tobi watched him while slightly bouncing on his heels. He couldn't stay still for too long, and Deidara had soon discovered that to be a huge pet peeve of his.
"Stop doing that, damnit." He grumbled, frowning as he didn't find any clean cups. He looked in the sink and there they were, the entire set of cups together, dirtied up from the previous user.
"Ugh, why don't people clean up after themselves around here?" He questioned, feeling irritable. He hated cleaning up after someone else, let alone those that lived in the hideout.
"Bunch of pigs, hm." Despite that, he went over and grabbed a semi-clean one, and began to rinse out whatever was in it before scrubbing some soap in there for good measure.
"Senpai, do you know what today is?" The masked boy suddenly asked. The blond had to strain himself from shooting him a very usual glare.
"What day is it?" He asked in through gritted teeth, rather exaggerated too.
"It's Hikari-chan's birthday!" Pausing, Deidara looked back at him.
"Tobi, we don't even know when she was born. How can you say today is her birthday, un?"
"Exactly, senpai! Because we don't know it, and she doesn't know it, we should make today her birthday!" He said, fist pumping the air. That only made Deidara's eye twitch.
"And who said you could decide something like that, hm?" Tobi paused, then shrugged. Deidara just turned away from him. The thought still lingered in his mind, however.
'Hikari's birthday…she doesn't have one, or at least we don't know it. Should we really decide on a date to celebrate it, un?' With that in mind, he finished cleaning the cup.
"Dana?" He blond called after a good while of silence between the two artists and their work. Sasori grunted as he smoothed out one of his puppets' arms with sandpaper.
"What?" He finally replied. The blond took a minute to continue on.
"What do you think about having a birthday party for Hikari? I mean, none of us know when she was born so…why not just celebrate it one day, hm?" At that, the puppet master actually stopped and looked at him.
"What's this now? We don't even celebrate our own birthdays, yet you want to throw her a party?" Deidara shrugged at that.
"I know, but Hikari's special…she's not like us. If anyone deserves something like that it's definitely her, un." Sasori stared at him, pondering at the same time on the things he was saying.
"It's somewhat true…she didn't choose to be with us, it just…happened. But does that really mean you have to throw her a birthday party? That sounds childish, and I doubt Pein would agree to it."
"Oh, right…Pein." The blond muttered, completely forgetting about their leader, and the scolding both received when that kiss incident happened between him and Hikari.
"So, if you don't want to get in trouble again, I suggest you throw that idea out the window." The redhead returned to his work then, but the blond remained still as he thought about it all. Would it really be so bad to do a little something for the girl? Would Pein really be overly bothered by it? He only said not to talk about love and relationship stuff. This was completely different, right?
'Nah, Dana's being paranoid, un.' He nodded his head as his final decision was made and he returned to molding his clay.
*2 days later*
"Hikari-chan, come here for a second!" Tobi said as he grabbed hold of the woman's arm, startling her a little.
"What? But, where-" She was cut off as he dragged her away from her room. He stopped when he got to the kitchen. Hikari blinked a few times and looked at him. Tobi 'grinned' and opened his arms wide.
"Happy Birthday!" He said, then pointed excitedly to a sloppy looking cake that was on the table.
"My…birthday is today?" She questioned, even more confused at this surprise.
"Well, no…I don't know when it is so I just thought it could be today. D'you like it? Were you surprised, huh?" He asked, bouncing up and down. The girl stared at him, then at the cake and back at him again. A smile soon formed on her face and she hugged him.
"Thanks Tobi-chan." He froze in place, then gladly returned the hug.
"Ahaha, no problem~!" His happiness ended when someone pried him away from her and smacked him upside down.
"What the hell Tobi! I told you to wait until everything was ready damnit, un!" A furious Deidara said, glaring holes into his mask. Tobi quickly made rapid swiping motions with his hands.
"A-Ah senpai! Don't kill me I just, I just couldn't wait anymore!" That only made the blond madder. He was about to give the childish member a beating to remember, but he reluctantly restrained this impulse and sighed.
"I'll never trust you with something like this again….I don't even know why I even did in the first place, hm." He then turned to Hikari, who looked a little bewildered still.
"Well, it's ruined now but.. happy birthday Hikari." He took something out of his cloak and handed it over to her.
"For me?" She said, taking the little wrapped up present.
"Well, you know, it's nothing special, just a little something," He coughed a bit as his cheeks tinted a light pink.
"I know you've been through some rough ends ever since you came to this hideout. With the idiot Tobi spilling that potion on you and making you grow up too fast into the woman you are today. Having to deal with Pein-sama's training crap, and all of us members being a bad influence, un." He half joked. Hikari smiled and gave the blond a hug.
"Even with all that, I'm happy how things are." Deidara blinked, and his face got a little redder when she hugged him and said such a thing. Damnit, how can he look at her innocently now? The blond held tightly to her as he felt his heart beating fast.
"Hikari, I.." He started off, but just as he did with Tobi, he was yanked away from Hikari by none other than his partner, who was not pleased at all.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, brat?" He growled. Deidara looked shocked for a moment, but then pulled away from his grip and huffed.
"What does it look like, un?" Sasori looked around and spotted the cake, then the present Hikari held in her hands. He sighed and shook his head.
"Did you not hear me last time? I told you not to do this, but you just ignored it like the brat you are and did it anyway." Deidara rolled his eyes.
"I don't see what's the big deal, dana. This is purely innocent." He justified, despite his inner feelings being deeper than his words. He narrowed is eyes at him, then looked back at Hikari. She stared at him, cocking her head slightly to the side; poor girl had to be in the middle of all the mess they did.
'Why are you overreacting like this? It's really nothing much.' Sasori thought, before walking up to the girl, stopping short in front of her.
"Well then…happy birthday I guess." He muttered awkwardly. Tobi cheered and Deidara grinned at his partner's soft side coming out. The four then cut up the cake after Hikari blew the only candle on it.
"Did you make a wish? Did you? What was it, huh?" Tobi asked, before being hit on the head by Deidara.
"Stop being a nuisance, hm! Besides, she can't tell you what she wished for or else it won't come true." Sasori scoffed at that.
"You still believe in that myth? So childish." He earned a glare from his partner.
"Oh shut up, dana. It's as much a myth as your stupid way of viewing art, un!" That got the redhead boiling up and he was about to get into one of their artistic mash ups when Itachi and Kisame entered the kitchen, and paused as they took in the scene before them.
"Are we celebrating something that I don't know of?" Kisame asked with his shark grin. Tobi was the first to confirm that.
"Yep, Hikari-chan's birthday!" At that, Itachi looked at her. She only gave a slight shrug and continued to eat her piece of cake.
"Hikari's birthday? I didn't know we knew when it was…"
"We don't, but the brats decided to make it today anyway." Sasori clarified. Kisame nodded, before he went on ahead and got a piece of cake himself, muttering a halfhearted happy birthday to the girl. Who could pass up free cake? Meanwhile, Itachi was still staring at her, and how she interacted with the group. Had she made such a great influence on them? Before they behaved as criminals of a secret organization should: always cold, always on missions, always obeying orders, always keeping to themselves and not doing anything unusual. But now that Hikari was part of their lives, said criminals became more of a dysfunctional family. Interactions between them were more often than before, despite most of them being rather annoying.
'Hikari, I don't think you know just how much you're affecting us….me.' With a last look, Itachi turned and headed out of the kitchen.
Night fell, and Hikari got herself ready to bed, when she saw the small present Deidara had given to her earlier on her bed. Curious to know what he got her, she walked over and sat down, picking it up and starting to unwrap it. Bit by bit it was revealed to be a clay sculpture of a flower. Not just any flower though, a water-lily. She carefully picked it up from the wrappings and held it close to her face. It had no color painted on it as one would expect, it was just plain dried clay with some glaze over it. However, it was just as delicate and beautiful to her.
'Thanks Dei-chan.' She thought as another smile surfaced. Putting the little sculpture on her nightstand, she drew back the covers and got in. Having a birthday surprise like that really caught her off guard. Despite that, she was really thankful to Tobi and Deidara for being so kind as to set that up for her. She didn't care if she didn't know when her real birthday was, all that mattered was that they cared enough to celebrate it whenever. Even Sasori, although he didn't look enthusiastic about the duo's little plan, seemed less grumpy and more open.
'They're all wonderful in their own little way. I can't think of life without them.' She thought, closing her eyes as sleep eventually took her.