*Chapter 9: Held Hostage*

Everything still appeared black, dark all around me. I couldn't have been awake because everything seemed empty and it felt weary.

I sat up and scanned the area, seeing nothing but endless darkness like an abyss.

"Hello?," my words echoed from loud to faint.

I found myself wearing a short flaring white dress that reached down to my knees and had thin straps on my shoulders. The Yang necklace I had put on the night I camped out with my teammates was still around my neck. I also noticed that I was barefooted as I could feel the coolness on the soles of my feet.

My hair was smooth and straight while I noted that my skin had no cuts or bruises. Not even blood was detected on my body and no pains anywhere.

"I must be dreaming," I said in an undertone.

A loud clank noise sounded several feet from where I stood. It would go from slow to fast until it changed to the sound of rolling as it got closer. The dark object that made the noise made its way in front of me. I peered at it skeptically before realizing what it was. It was a smoke bomb.

It blew up a large cloud of smoke that surrounded me and was slightly suffocating me. I coughed and waved my hands around to clear the smoke out of the way, when I saw a dark figure standing before me.

I was startled as I caught a glimpse of the mysterious cloaked individual. He wore all black and had a hood over his head, opaque in the inside. I couldn't see their face.

"Who are you?," I questioned the stranger.

He remained silent and as still as a statue. It freaked me out a little that he made no movement or sounds for the next couple of minutes.

Unexpectedly, the stranger grabbed at the middle of his cloak, pulled apart the buttons that closed it together and slowly revealed his entire bare chest. I wasn't sure what he was trying to show me when I clearly saw nothing but skin.

Suddenly, something lit up in the shape of a heart where their actual heart was supposed to be. Curious, I carefully raised my hand and was about to touch it, when I felt a slight sting in my middle finger. When I checked, it was a small cut that mysteriously on the tip on it.

The dark stranger gently grabbed my hand and lightly placed my fingers on the glowing spot on his body. I witnessed as the injury I had recently received suddenly disappeared. It was one of the craziest things I've ever seen. How could a light such as that heal my wound? It couldn't possibly be some other type of healing jutsu, otherwise I would've known about it.

As I peered in awe at my healed finger, wiggling and playing with it, the stranger started groaning in pain as he grasped his lit up heart area. I was beginning to worry and tried to reach out to him.

"Oh no, are you okay sir?," I asked concerning.

The heart shaped light glowed brighter to the point where it was extremely blinding. I closed my eyes shut and used my arms to shield them better.

I heard a loud boom right in front of me. I also felt something wet splash all over me, which alarmed me when the smell of iron filled my nose.

I cautiously lowered down my arms and observed myself. The mysterious man was gone, but there was one problem. I was covered in blood. It stained my dress with blotches, barely leaving any white visible, and my skin was coated with the sticky think substance.

I was in shock. I was confused on where it came from, or who it was from. When I spotted a piece of black cloth on the floor soaked from the puddle of blood it laid on, I began to tremble through my body as I reached down and picked it up.

It felt like the material the stranger wore as his cloak. That's when I realized, this blood was from the mysterious man. He exploded and his red body fluid splashed on me.

I panicked and let out a shrill of terror.

My eyes flew wide open and I jumped in place as I quickly sat up and breathed rapidly. I quickly looked around as my heart raced, not really paying attention to my surroundings. I touched my face and checked myself. No blood.

"It was just a dream…," I sighed of relief.

"You finally woke up," I deep eerie voice said, which started me.

I felt my eyes grow huge as I slowly turned my head to the right and saw a tall man in a black cloak sitting next to the door on the left side. I let out a quick shriek when I saw him.

He had dark skin, green colored eyes, but what was supposed to be white on the eyeballs was pink and wore a dark mask over his face. He also wore a hat with a metal plate on the forehead area with the symbol for the Village Hidden by a Waterfall slashed out.

I darted the cloak when I noticed it had crimson red clouds on it, just like Deidara's.

"He must be another member of the Akatsuki," I thought as I narrowed my eyes, examining him more carefully.

"Why are you staring at me like that?," he asked without changing his expression.

"You're a member of the Akatsuki, aren't you?," I asked.

He sighed before answering.

"Yes I am. You must be the girl Deidara has been going out to see for the past couple of days," he guessed correctly.

I was surprised he knew that. But how?

"H-How did you know that?," I twisted my body a tad bit when a pain in my side and groaned.

"Be careful. Your wound opened when we found you in our trap, so I treated it and stitched it up to help close it. You wouldn't want to reopen it and bleed out," he warned me in his deep creepy tone, "I also popped your fingers back into their places since they were broken and crooked."

After he told me that, I realized I was in a futon bed and when I lifted up the blanket that covered over the majority of my body, I found myself topless. The upper half of my body was wrapped with bandages, except for the part where he stitched me up above my hip. I glided my fingers across it. Even my shorts were gone and I was in my underwear!

"Ah! I'm practically naked under here! What did you do to my clothes?!," I shouted in great shock.

"I removed them obviously. They were filthy and worn out, so I threw them away," he answered, still with his same non-changing expression.

"You did what?! Why?! So you saw me naked?!," I exclaimed angrily embarrassed. My face was flushed, I could tell because it was warm.

He sighed and grabbed the bridge of his nose out of frustration.

"Yes. How do you think I wrapped your wounds? Hidan was staring, but I tried as hard as I could to block his view," he said patiently.

"Who's Hidan?," I asked loudly and curiously.

"Ugh! Kakuzu, will you shut that bitch up?! I can hear her from all the way down the fucking hall," a man with only a towel wrapped around his waist said as he entered the room and closed the door behind him.

He certainly had a nice body, light skinned, had short silver hair that was messy until he slicked it back when he looked at me, and his eyes were purple. He also wore a strange necklace around his neck. It was a pendant of a peculiar symbol. I never saw anything like it. He peered down at me as I blushed and held the blanket over me to keep him from seeing me half nude.

"So you must be Hidan?," I said as I looked up at him skeptically.

"Yeah, what about it?," he arched an eyebrow and sneered.

Then I scrolled my eyes to the other guy still sitting.

"And you're Kakuzu?," I asked arching an eyebrow towards him.

"That's right," he answered roughly.

I scanned the room, wondering where I was, since it appeared neat and clean.

"Where am I?," I asked peering at the ceiling.

"You are in a hotel. We are staying here for the night and unfortunately, you will be stuck as our prisoner until we return to the Akatsuki hideout. Our leader can deal with you then," Kakuzu explained in a frightening tone.

I swear I felt a chill run down my spine as he said those things. I gulped at the thought that I was being held hostage and they were going to take me to their hideout, where I would meet the other members of Akatsuki. I was more worried of what their leader was like. Hopefully, I don't get killed and that someone comes to my rescue.

"Yeah so when we go to sleep, I'm gonna tie your fucking hands so you don't try anything suspicious!," Hidan announced to me, grinning deviously.

I had a bad feeling in my gut and I knew there was no way out of this. These guys had to be dangerous if they were part of the same group as Deidara. I sighed as I realized I had to accept it, be patient and act cool until there was an advantage, which seemed like now wasn't a good time.

"Fine," I groaned, pouting at the blanket.

"Hidan, you will keep an eye on her while I go run an errand real quick," Kakuzu commanded his partner.

Hidan didn't seem too happy about watching me as he arched an eyebrow and pointed at me.

"What?! I have to fucking babysit this little bitch?!," he angrily shouted, sounding like he might beg for mercy from me.

I was ticked off at the fact he referred to me as "little" and used the term "babysit", like as if I was some child.

"Hey! I'm not little! I'm eighteen years old! I'm pretty much an adult now!," I yelled at the half naked man who glowered at me.

His frown turned into a devilish grin as he chuckled and looked at me. Uncertain of what he was thinking, I gripped the blanket tighter over my body.

"Well that explains why you have a fucking decent pair of t-!"

"Enough Hidan," Kakuzu interrupted him before he could finish his sentence, "This young lady clearly doesn't want to be treated as such."

I nodded approvingly and stuck my tongue out at the gray haired man.

"Hey, you better put that fucking tongue back in your mouth before I fucking cut it off!," Hidan threatened.

I reluctantly obeyed and became annoyed at the fact he cursed a lot. Everything he said apparently had to include a bad word or two, which was ugly in my opinion.

"You have a big fat potty mouth. I'm surprised your friend hasn't stuck a bar of soap in your mouth by now for having that kind of language," I commented thoughtlessly.

He got tense and very mad that he walked up to me swiftly, kneeled down and had his face close to mine, glaring as he met his dull violet eyes with mine. I tensed up from the realization that he was bad news and he was also naked under that towel. We were basically having a staring match with each other.

"You've got a fucking problem with how I talk? Then why don't you say it to my fucking face?!," he growled.

"I don't like your fucking tone!," I spat in his face, shocked that I said the "f" word while forgetting that he could kill me in an instant for talking back to him.

Surprisingly, he didn't do such thing. He only looked at me, amazed at how I cursed and stood up against him, although he didn't like it at all. In fact, he grinded his teeth together out of anger and narrowed his eyes at me.

"Why you little brat!," he yelled as I felt his breath hit my face.

"Enough you two!," Kakuzu shouted. I could tell he sounded annoyed by the grouchy tone in his voice when he said that. I hid myself underneath the blanket, terrified a bit. I didn't want to get on his bad side, ever.

Hidan stood up and rubbed the back of his head, frowning at his partner. The tall dark man then cleared his throat and turned to open the door, but before he was about halfway out the doorway, he paused and stood facing outward.

"I'll be back. You two better get along or you'll be sorry. And as for you question of how I knew you were associated with Deidara? You necklace is the other half of the one he has. Those are the rarest of its kind and he managed to get them for the both of you. You must be very special for him to have given you something so valuable," he said before fully exiting the room and shutting the door behind him.

I couldn't believe what I heard. I peered down at my necklace and held it in my hand, rubbing the surface of it gently, astonished that these necklaces were the rarest, as he claimed.

"So these are the only pair of this kind?," I thought curiously amazed at it.

"Pfft! Big deal! That piece if shit isn't worth as much as this little baby here," he said as he lifted his strange pendant for me to see. Then as he smirked and chuckled at my puzzled reaction, he kissed it and left it dangling around his neck.

I was left in the same room with a mysterious, mischievous grinning, potty mouthed, half nude man and honestly, I wasn't sure if I was partially enjoying it or I was going to fully regret that I even had thoughts of it being a bit pleasant.

As he continued to stare and smirk at me indecently, I hid my body under the blanket, having only half of my head stick out so I could monitor his actions. I hoped that he wouldn't try anything funny, like attempt to rape me or something. He had that crazed look in his eyes and a bad aura surrounding him. I knew I couldn't keep my eyes off of him or it would probably been the end of me.

He let out a sigh before turning to face his back at me.

"You know, you're fucking lucky you're Deidara's girl, otherwise, I would've used you as a sacrifice to my Lord Jashin," he complained.

"Hey, I-!," I paused when I noticed he was about to remove his towel from his body.

I began to blush heavily when I barely saw the crack of his butt. How rude of him for not letting me know ahead of time that he planned to change into his clothes.

"You could've warned me, you know!," I shouted as I sunk my head further into in the blanket.

He glanced at my direction and chuckled as he tossed his towel to the side, carelessly flashing his buttocks. I shut my eyes and kept them closed until he was done putting on his clothing. He took his time, which felt like forever, but at least it was over sooner. That was embarrassing for me to have seen him like that.

For the rest of the day, until Kakuzu returned from his errand, Hidan sat on the ground, watching me like a hawk. I wasn't comfortable with him staring at me, but I couldn't avoid it. I was stuck with him, whether I liked it or not. But I sure was annoyed of it.

Later, he came up to me and pulled out a long piece of thick rope and beckoned for me to raise both arms so he could wrap them around my wrists.

"Ow! Be gentle damn it!," I complained as he tightened the rope too tight and roughly.

"Sorry miss, but I don't give a shit about how you feel. You're going to have to deal with the fucking pain," he said rudely smirking at me as he finished tying it and released his grip.

My hands were useless at my defense and they were hurting, rubbing against my skin continuously. I groaned as it irritated my wrists, but of course, he didn't care one bit. He somehow enjoyed my minor suffering. He was still kneeled down at my level where I still sat, with him in my personal space.

"Do you mind?," I said with an attitude as I wiggled my hands away for him to remove himself from my face.

He deeply chuckled as he ignored my wish. I slightly backed away from him after that creepy laugh.

"Well aren't you just fucking adorable?," he said as he pinched my cheek and moved his head close to where his was right beside mine.

My body tensed up as I felt his unbelievably soft lips brush against my neck, then he moved to where his mouth was by my right ear, feeling his light breath hit it. My heart raced a little faster than normal.

I only sat still because I was very unsure of what to do. If I had pushed him away, he probably would've killed me in a spilt second or maybe just torture me by slicing my skin or cutting off a finger. I was actually scared, worried of what he'd do to me if I didn't fight back, but my body froze unwillingly and I was still hurt from head to toe.

I didn't know what to do as I waited for him to make another move.

"No wonder Deidara has a thing for you. After hearing from Sasori about how he fucking blabbed about his stories of when he used to spent a lot of time with you to him and how he would become distracted when he stared at his shitty necklace, I honestly wanted to fucking know who made that fucking brat so lovesick. From the looks of things, he seems to be into cute little feisty bitches," he whispered in my ear, which gave me chills down my spine.

I was in so much disbelief. I never imagined Deidara acting like that because of me. Although I did feel that he was acting a bit different around me from the last two days he visited. I still didn't trust him. No matter what Hidan was telling me, I didn't believe it, because my anger still bubbled inside for him, even though I sensed something changed in him and wanted to let it go already.

"R-Really?," I stuttered softly for a reassurance from him, starting to slightly trembling throughout my entire body of nervousness.

My cheeks were very warm and my body temperature was rising. I could tell he was smirking against my ear.

"Hell yeah, but he mentioned lately that you were fucking furious with him, which made him sort of upset, so he's trying to find ways to ease your fucking anger towards him," he added.

This was more surprising to hear.

"Ease my anger?," I repeated in a questionable tone while arching an eyebrow.

Deidara wanted to help make me less angry at him? That could possibly take a dramatically long time, but I would give him credit for trying, if I made it out of here first.

"Yup. But I don't see why you should waste your time with that fucker, when you could be using it more fucking wisely with me," he said coolly in a teasing manner.

I was skeptical about what he meant and before I could protest, I felt his wet warm tongue slowly glide against my bare neck, causing me to shutter and let out a small and silent whimper. It tingled throughout my entire body, although I didn't want it to happen. I knew it was wrong. He grinned against my skin, believing I liked it.

Fear began flooding my mind with terrible thoughts. I believed he was really going to rape me then and there, while Kakuzu was absent.

I hadn't felt this scared since I was weakly hanging from the tree for my life that one night. I wanted someone to help me and soon. I was vulnerable to defend myself since my arms were tied and I was still weak from earlier that day when they found me. I didn't want to fight because I was afraid to quickly die or open my huge gash on my side.

I was hopeless.

Miraculously, Kakuzu slammed open the door and caught his partner in the act. He did not look too pleased with what he saw.

"Hidan, what are you doing to the girl? You know she's with Deidara!," he exclaimed angrily.

Hidan peered up at him and gave an evil glare, standing up straight as he kept his sight on him.

"Yeah so what? Like I give a shit!," Hidan complained.

They began to argue with one another about the situation. I assumed they did this all the time when Hidan does something he shouldn't. I was glad that Deidara was my excuse for living through this, although there were countless times I wanted to protest and say that I wasn't his girlfriend.

From what they've told me already, Deidara seemed to have a real interest in me, which made me blush at the thought of it, because deep inside my heart, he had to have liked me more than a friend for a very long time.

Ever since I remembered him promising that he would make me his wife in the future, I've started to think that he was actually meaning it, because he must have really liked me, maybe even secretly loved me. But at the same time, my mind is contrasting and telling me that he was only toying with my emotions so he could get closer and ruin my life, saying whatever he thinks will trick me into letting my guard down. I wasn't sure what to believe as my feelings were mixing up again and it was making my head and chest ache.

The two men stopped yelling into each other's faces when they noticed me rolled up into a ball and silently whining. I saw them both peering down at me as I tried to figure myself out, wishing there was a true answer to what was right. I buried my face into my legs trying hard not to cry.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?," Hidan asked me frowning in a mad way.

Finally, I put my thoughts of Deidara aside for a moment and unrolled myself, sniffling a little bit before I opened my mouth to answer.

"Nothing…," I replied as I glowered to the floor and remained silent.

A couple of hours later, the three of us decided it was time for bed. Since Kakuzu didn't want to waste money on an extra room for me because he reasons were one: that they were expensive and two: he predicted I would try to escape if he did, I was left unfortunate to sleep in the same room as him and Hidan. Because he witnessed his partner trying to have his way with me, Kakuzu made bedding arranges, leaving me where I was on the very right on the room, him in the middle and Hidan on the left. I mentally agreed to that placement, since I didn't want Hidan attempting to have sex with me again.

The two Akatsuki members were sound asleep quicker than I had imagined. I thought one of them would've been awake much longer than the other.

"I wish I was having a good night's rest…," I mumbled to myself softly in a whisper, glancing at both of the men before peering up at the light colored ceiling.

I laid there, wanting to clear my mind so I could sleep peacefully, but that night was different. I was being held hostage by two S-Ranked criminals, who were also members of Akatsuki like Deidara; I was far from home, from my wonderful village, from my peaceful apartment and my comfortable bed; I was injured badly from the fight with Takuna back in the forest; I wasn't sure if Eriku and the others were searching for me; I missed my family, my friends, Lady Tsunade, everyone.

I felt my eyes become moist as I began to sniffle silently, with tears rolling down my cheeks and onto the pillow. I quietly prayed to in my mind that someone would come to my rescue, somebody, anybody.

I didn't even care if it was Deidara who had to save me again; I just wanted someone to get me out of this mess.

Thinking about him again made me remember one of the times when we were younger, about thirteen I believed.

I was being bullied by Takuna and her group once again on one of the days I was staying with Deidara. She and her friends were beating me up in a field away from the village, so there would be no witnesses. Deidara was gone for a little bit, which gave Takuna the advantage to get me when I least expected it.

Back then, I was defenseless and couldn't really protect myself against my enemy, especially when it was one against three. I was hurting a lot and once I was on the ground helpless and vulnerable, she pulled me up by yanking on my hair to face me and smirked at my dirty and damaged face.

"Look at you now Kat. You're all beaten and filthy, can't even defend yourself. You certainly are worthless," she said as she spat on my face.

"Leave me alone Takuna… What's your problem with me?!," I cried as I kicked her in the chest, causing her to release her grip on my hair and I fell on my butt.

I had to do something to help myself out of the situation, but it turned out to make it worse than it already was.

She got up ferociously and jumped right on top of me, punched my face hard once before I grabbed both her wrists as strong as I could to prevent any more hits from her. I struggled as much as I could, holding her off for as long as I could, before she hit me again.

"Hey! What are you doing?! Hmm," a familiar voice shouted not too far from where we were.

I tilted my head upward in my upside down view to see Deidara furiously glaring at Takuna, grinding his teeth together.

"D-Deidara…," I struggled to say, coughing and feeling a little faint, but tried my best to stay awake and alert.

He ran over to us and roughly shoved Takuna off of me, lifting the top half of my body to see what happened to me.

"Katana, what happened here?! Hmm," he demanded of me with a distraught look on his face.

I coughed harder and groaned before I responded to him.

"I was... just out here sitting, m-minding my own business when… when T-Takuna and her gang… came over and started messing with me…," I coughed before I continued, "When I told them to leave me alone, they all c-came at me and j-jumped me… When Takuna was grabbing me by the hair, I kicked her to defend myself, but then she jumped on me and p-punched me in the face real hard…," I said, struggling with the enormous pain in my body.

He was extremely mad when he registered all that information in his head and noticed the bruises and a small amount of blood I spat out of my mouth. He turned his attention to everyone else, especially Takuna, whom he was mostly angry with.

"What the hell is wrong with you Takuna?! Why do you insist on messing with Kat?! She has done nothing to you! Hmm," he exclaimed with pure hatred in his visible eye. I never liked it when he was like that, it scared me and I wanted him to be happy.

I carefully raised my arm left arm and grabbed his hand lightly, assuring him that I was fine. He looked at me with a sympathetic expression.

"I'm okay, Deidara… Really, I'm fine," I told him softly, trying to hold back a cough.

He gripped my hand tighter as he continued to look upset towards me.

"No you're not. Have you seen yourself? You're all dirty and beaten up. Hmm," he told me trying to act calm and sighed, "We need to go back to my house and get you treated. Hmm."

So he slid both his arms under me carefully, scooped me up gently and held me bridle-style. He frowned when he heard me groaning in pain and planned on turning around and taking us back to his house, ignoring everyone that was there.

But before he took off too far from the group, he paused and turned his head towards them, glowering at mainly Takuna who was feeling extremely guilty about what she did, but couldn't explain herself.

"If any of you do this to her again, I will personally find each and every one of you and blow you all to bits with my artistic sculptures. Got it? Hmm," he warned them, proving as a great threat to the group that they shuddered and gulped.

Takuna didn't react like the rest of them, looking emotionless as Deidara carried me to his house to take care of my wounds.

When we arrived, he took me straight to his room, laid me down on his bed and went to grab the first aid kit. He removed my headband, cleaned all my injuries which stung like hell, then wrapped them up with fresh bandages, covering most of my body with the white strips. I was embarrassed that I looked like a mummy, which made him laugh but I thought it was funny too.

"You should rest, after all, I'm not sure you can move on your own. Hmm," he informed me as he stood by my side.

"Yeah I suppose so. But how am I gonna eat dinner?," I asked as my stomach made a loud growling noise that was heard throughout the entire room.

"I'll bring it to you. I'm not gonna let you starve silly. Hmm," he laughed.

I giggled at how embarrassed I was about my loud stomach.

"Oh okay," I said as beamed at him.

Suddenly, when I least expected it, he bent over and gently pressed his soft lips against my bare forehead. I was so surprised that my face was flushed with redness all over.

"I'm glad you're doing better Kat. I got really scared when those kids were ruthlessly beating you up. I didn't want anything bad to happen to you. Hmm," he admitted as he grabbed my hand and firmly squeezed it, with sadness in his eyes.

"Deidara," I said in my mind, amazed at how caring he was about me. I felt bad that he had to witness something as terrible as my fight with Takuna and her gang. I couldn't imagine what would happen if he saw me severely injured, or even worse. What if I was dead? I was sure that would have devastated him.

"I'm sorry Deidara… I didn't mean to upset you… It's all my fault you got worried about me…," I started to choke back my tears as I sniffled.

He looked at me with a sad smile.

"It's not your fault. I'm sorry that you had to suffer with kids from my village trying hurting you. Hmm," he said feeling guilt in his heart.

"No it's not. I think it would've been better if I never came to the Stone Village…," I said looking down at the blanket covering my lower half of my body.

He quickly sat by my side on the bed and moved his face closer to mine, with only a few inched apart from each other's. He gave me a stern look and met his pale blue eye with mine. My heart raced a little from the distance he was from me. He kept his grip on my hand.

"Don't say that. Don't ever say that again. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me and I don't care if anyone doesn't approve of our friendship. Who cares what they think! Hmm," he told me as he gently tightened his grip. He even clenched to the blanket as tightly as my hand.

Astonishment overwhelmed me when he said those words so strongly and filled with meaning. My eyes widened and I was overall speechless. I didn't know how to respond to that.

Unexpectedly, his visible eye was becoming moist and a single tear was about to roll down his cheek. That was the first time I had ever seen him shed a tear. I never recalled seeing him cry before, since he was always so tough, but that time was different. He was allowing his deep emotion of sadness take over.

I gently placed my hand on his cheek and wiped the tear away from under his eye with my thumb.

"It's okay Deidara. We'll make it through this together," I told him with a smile, assuring him everything would turn out better.

His frown turned upside down into a sad smile and embraced me tightly.

"Can you promise me something? Hmm," he asked me as his face was lying on my shoulder.

"Yes?," I told him as I wrapped my arms around his back firmly.

"Promise me you'll stay out of trouble and don't do stupid things when you're out on your own. I don't want to lose you. You're my closest and most special friend. Hmm," he asked me into my ear.

Thinking about it, I tend to get myself into a lot of reckless situations. He knew that for a fact. But he wanted me to try and stay on the safe side, so that we could continue seeing each other forever. He really cared about me and I felt the same for him.

So I sighed and prepared to reply.

"I promise," I told him truthfully.

He let go and looked at me, smiling pleasantly, without a hint of a smirk or grin. It was nice to see him that way. I smiled back and for some reason, we were suddenly getting closer to each other's faces, like as if a natural force was pushing us together. My heart was racing faster as our lips were only less than an inch away from each other's and we both had closed our eyes until one of his parents knocked on the door to let up know that dinner was ready. We stopped and pulled away shyly when we realized what we were about to do.

It was so shocking to me that we were about to kiss. I couldn't stop blushing and my heart wouldn't stop beating rapidly. It was such a close call.

"I'll get our food. You wait here okay? Hmm," he said as he was blushing light red on his cheeks.

He got up, released his grip on my hand and went out of the room to get the food. I sighed and tried to calm down, although I couldn't get over what just happened. I touched my warm face and then glided my fingers on my lips, imagining what my first kiss would've been like. I never thought it was going to be with Deidara at first, but something in my heart told me he was definitely special. I loved him dearly as a close friend I believed, but I never actually thought it could go further between us and I figured it wasn't the right time to express our feelings to each other.

My emotions were scrambled and I didn't know what to believe. But I passed it off as a false alarm and didn't think much of it for the rest of the night. He came back with our food and we enjoyed the rest of the evening like nothing had happened.

All this confusion I felt about him made me want to cry even harder, because I knew deep inside, I missed him dearly. I missed the old days when life wasn't so difficult and we weren't choosing the wrong decisions. I missed the old Deidara. The Deidara who promised to do all the right things to achieve our goals with me. The one who said he would always be there for me, no matter what. The one who always protected me from bad situations when in reach of me. The one who helped take care of me when I got sick or hurt myself on accident. The Deidara who wouldn't go as far as to commit such horrible crimes for his selfish gain. I desperately wanted things to go back the way it used to be.

But I realized it was never going to happen. He chose to deceive me and everyone else that was involved with him. He became the criminal I now knew him as, who was also part of the evil organization Akatsuki who were scheming to steal the jinchurikis from their hosts. I only knew that much and decided to keep it to myself.

He might have showed up at my doorstep, not pleading for forgiveness and was present for my birthday and gave me a memorable birthday gift, but certain things like that were not going to get him an instant golden ticket from me to that easily. Only time would tell, if I felt he meant what he said about missing me and all, then we would have to see. He had to truly prove it.

I cried a little more but tried to choke back my tears so I wouldn't disturb Kakuzu or Hidan. I couldn't get my mind off of Deidara now. It began to bother me as I continued to think back to our past. My heart was aching painfully as I placed my tied hands over it, gripping my chest gently.

"Will you shut the fuck up? All your crying is keeping me up…," Hidan muffled as he turned on his side.

I stopped weeping heavily and looked out the window, peering at the shining beautiful moon that brightened the night. It was nice to stare at, but he wouldn't leave my thoughts. My heart still hurt when I saw his face and thought of his name in my mind.

"Deidara…," I whispered quietly before I shut my eyes and tried to sleep.