11: It's me, Deidara!
Well...I have to say that it's kind of hard to find good things to say about the growed-ups right now. I mean, they're always putting us on time-out and we don't get enough sugar and Sasori-san has dropped me a few times. I don't know who they are or what they think they're doing but JEEZ! They're not very good mommies and daddies...
Oh, I forgot to mention that we got to beat up the growed-ups with water balloons yesterday. They're pretty sore today and I think it's because of some of my water bombs that blew up a little too close to their feet...
It's back to normal except the growed-ups are feeling pretty stupid about the water fight. I know that because every time they look at us, they shiver and shake their heads. And it's becoming so frequent, I'm keep having to hold back laughter. Tobi and I are sitting at the table, coloring, while Sasori and Zetsu make dinner. I'm pretty sure Kakuzu and Itachi are wrestling with Hidan and Kisame in the living room - and probably winning, while I'm thinking about it.
"Sasori-san?" I ask, looking up at him. He flinches and almost drops the eggs he will be using for our ham fried rice. "How old are you, un?" I hadn't really thought about it until that moment and I hadn't thought about it until that moment because it wasn't that important until that moment.
He turned his head toward me, a puzzled look on his face. "Um...19?" he replies but I can hear the uncertainty in his voice.
I cross my arms over my chest and give him one of those "now you're in for it" looks that he always gives me. "Sasori-san, if I'm not allowed to lie, why are you, un?"
"I'm not lying!" he snapped, sticking his nose in the air. "I mean, I look like I'm 19, right?"
"I look like I could be 25 if I smile just right but I'm not 25, un!" I yell impatiently, throwing my crayon on the table in anticipation for my next temper tantrum. I'm all ready to start screaming when I notice that both Zetsu and Sasori are looking at me with wide eyes, almost scared. "What?" I ask, a little more intimidated.
Sasori shakes his head, his eyes now reflecting sadness. "Nothing, Deidara. Go back to coloring..."
Frowning, I get up and wander over to him. I wrap my arms around his leg, wondering what I'd said to make him so sad. "I'm sorry, un." I don't look up at him as I wander out of the room, Tobi following without question. Yeah, I have to mention something about Tobi here. He's like a puppy. A lost puppy, while I'm at it. He will follow me anywhere without question, jump at the chance to help me. Now, that's not the only reason why I like Tobi - but it's a big part of it. He's really nice, too. And he didn't make fun of my hands when he first saw them. We're best friends - in my eyes. But, sometimes, I wonder how he sees me. Sometimes, I wonder if it's something like how Sasori looks at Hidan when he's really happy. Sometimes, I wonder if it's as close as I can ever get to love. I shake my head, impatient with myself.
"Where are they going, Dei-kun?" Tobi asks and I pause to wonder who "they" is. Then I remember he means "we".
"We're going to Sasori-san's room, un," I whisper sneakily. He grins in that way that makes me wonder all those things all over again. "Come on..." I want to stop him from thinking like that. My problem is sometimes I think the same things about him. So I grab his hand and drag him quietly down the hall towards the room that Sasori and I sleep. I consider it Sasori's room because of all the puppets - which really creep me out, by the way - even though it's my room too. I glare up at the door when we reach it.
Tobi grabs the doorknob and pushes open the door. "Now what?" he whispers, looking at me as the door silently opens all the way.
"Now, we're going to teach Sasori-san not to lie, un." I steel myself, trying to think of how we're going to be quiet about this. "We're going to take Sasori-san's puppets apart and take some of the pieces so he can't fix them by tomorrow."
"And blow up the pieces?" Tobi inquires. It hadn't occured to me at first so I pause and looking at him. "What?"
"You're really smart, Tobi, un!" I tell him and we walk into the room, silently closing the door behind us. Staring at all the puppets, we look at each other determinedly and set to work.
"Where are they?"
"They've been gone for how long and you just now noticed?"
I frown, looking down the hall. "It's no good, un. We can't get out that way."
Tobi looks around the room and then points at the window. "Dei-kun, maybe you and Tobi can leave through the window?"
"Too high, un," I reply with a shake of my head. "We need another secret hallway..."
This makes Tobi's face lighten hugely. "Okay. Tobi knows where to go then! Tobi sneaks in and out of Sasori-san's room at night to make sure you're okay. It's in the closet!"
I blush at his words. Something inside of me is itching to be recognized but I don't know what it is. It feels like a really distant memory - one that I hadn't looked at in forever so I've almost completely forgotten it. Frowning at the annoying feeling inside me, I nod at Tobi. "Alright, let's go, un."
He leads me to the back of Sasori-san's closet where he pushes a panel aside and climbs in. He holds out his hand for me and says, "Come on, Dei-kun!" I take his hand and he pulls me into the little tunnel. I turn and close the panel behind me.
Then I turn to Tobi. He has a blank look on his face that scares me for a minute until he looks at me, sadness washing over him. "What?"
"Tobi doesn't know but he doesn't like it," he informs me, turning and crawling down the tunnel. "Dei-kun, Tobi's starting to think that the growed-ups aren't telling you and Tobi everything..."
"And what they're not telling is important, un?" I answer, my voice hard. He nods from in front of me. "We'll have to do something about that. What's important to Zetsu-san, un?"
Tobi pauses at a three-way fork in the tunnel. "Tobi's not sure. Maybe Tobi."
I wince as that registers. "Tell me where to go to get out of here and you stay, un."
"Why?" He looks at me, his eyes wide. I know he doesn't like the dark and this tunnel is very dark. "You can't leave Tobi all by himself!" His voice is bordering on hysteria.
And that stupid itchy feeling is back as I stare at him. So I react on it. Except, had it not been there, I probably wouldn't have done what I just did. I lean forward and kiss Tobi on his mouth. He doesn't pull back. "I'll be back, Tobi, un," I whisper, breathless with confusion. "And I'll bring a light. But I want to know what the growed-ups are hiding so I want to take away what's important to them so they'll tell me, un. So Sasori-san's puppet pieces, you're important to Zetsu-san, and I think Hidan-san's scythe is important to him...I don't know what's important to Kisame-san so I have to ask Itachi, un."
Tobi shakes his head. "His sword. That's most important to Kisame-san." Then he frowns and looks down at his knees. "Promise you'll be back?"
I cross my heart. "Promise. I'll bring a light and your blanket, un." Then I smile at him. The itching's back but I refuse to react this time as Tobi points ahead of me. "Thanks." I empty my pockets of all the little joint pieces from Sasori's puppets and then quickly scramble down the hall toward the next exit. When I get out, I don't close the panel all the way for Tobi. Then I turn and hurry to find a light and Tobi's blanket.
"So, that's your big plan?" Itachi asks as we all crowd in the tunnel, the lantern glowing oddly in the middle of our crowded little circle. I nod determinedly. "Well...It could work..." He glances at Tobi out of the corner of his eye and I have this odd feeling of wanting to hit him.
"Look, it's the best I've got and I want to know what we're missing, un," I tell him impatiently.
Kakuzu looks at me, strangely more calm than usual. "Okay. I'll help. Because I've had this really annoying and odd feeling about Hidan all day and I think that if we can get the adults to tell us what's going on, it will go away." I stare at him and am suddenly very grateful to him. "So you have parts of Sasori's puppets and Tobi's hiding. Now all we need are the scythe - which I will get - and the sword - which Ita-kun will get."
"Why do I have to get it? It hates me!" Itachi cries, looking slightly panicked.
Kakuzu shrugs. "Because Kisame-san's babysitting you so you have access to his sword. We'll wrap it in lots of blankets first. But before that, we have to get the growed-ups to sleep so they won't notice us. These are big things we're trying to take."
I think about that for the first time. "Okay. Well, I know where Sasori-san keeps the pills he gives me every night to make me sleep a long time, un. Will those work?"
"Sure. We'll all go out to dinner. You and Tobi get all the adults into the living room and Itachi and I will put the pills in their food. So the table has to be set first so we don't get the plates mixed up," Kakuzu plans expertly. I'm very happy I let him know what I wanted to do now. I couldn't have thought about all this by myself. "Let's go."
So we all leave, going to do exactly what we were told to do. Tobi and I start throwing the biggest fits about nothing in the living room after the table's all set. At first, just Sasori and Zetsu come out to see what's going on. But we become fiesty and louder so Hidan and Kisame walk out to see as well. None of them can contain us and we're very proud of our work.
Kakuzu and Itachi - I can see them from my spot on the floor - hurry to the table with the bottle of pills and slip one each into the growed-ups' rice. Once Kakuzu puts the pills into his pocket, he gives me a thumbs up sign. As Tobi and I abruptly stop our tantrums and look up at the growed-ups with blank expressions.
"What was that about?" Hidan explodes almost immediately. "What was the whole damn reason for that?" Sasori takes this opportunity to smack him upside the head. "Really?" he responds sarcastically.
I glance at Tobi who starts whimpering. "To-Tobi's really sorry..." he whines expertly. See, this is why working with Tobi isn't that bad. It's actually quite fun.
"Me too, un," I mumble, staring at their feet and noticing something for the first time. "Why do you guys have nailpolish on your toes?" I look up at them expectantly. Hidan and Sasori are spluttering and blushing madly while Kisame and Zetsu both seem at loss of words. "Well, anyway, they're very pretty, un. I'm hungry. Is anybody else, un?" Right on cue, my fellow fiends cry out enthusiastically. "Yay!"
"That worked nicely," Kakuzu observes as he shovels another spoonful of rice into his mouth. The growed-ups are all facedown - or close enough - in their food, dead to the world. I poke Sasori just to make sure. He doesn't even flinch like he does at night when I want a glass of water. "Those pills worked really fast. Well, we better go get the scythe and the sword while they're still asleep. Then we can hide you -" He looks pointedly at Tobi who cowers and pokes at his food. "- and the other things in the tunnel. Then the rest of us will come back and wait for them to wake up. As they wake up, we go back to eating like nothing happened."
I grin. "I'm excited, un."
"Tobi's not..." Tobi mumbles as we all climb away from the table. "How long will Tobi have to be in there?"
"Until we come to get you and the other things. Hopefully, it won't take too long," Itachi says, sounding somewhat sad toward Tobi. Something inside me makes me think that maybe Itachi's scared of the dark too but he won't admit it.
We all walk back to the tunnel where Tobi climbs in. I pass him the lantern and kiss his cheek as Itachi and Kakuzu go get the weapons. "I'd stay with you but I need to be out there, un..."
"Tobi knows," he tells me, not sounding as down this time. "Tobi really hopes this will work." He smiles hopefully and I grin in response. He crawls back to the main part of the tunnel and I stand guard. Kakuzu comes back first, easily holding the scythe over his shoulder.
He shrugs when he sees my bewildered expression. "It's light," he informs me. We wrap the blades up in some blankets I get from Zetsu's room and then pass the weapon in to Tobi who positions it next to him. Then Kakuzu goes and helps Itachi who's struggling with the sword. "You're right; it doesn't like you." The wrestle with the thing and I keep having to wrap more blankets around the handle for them. After about five more blankets, we pass it carefully inside. Tobi makes sure not to touch anything but the wrapped handle.
"You okay, Tobi?" Kakuzu calls hurriedly.
"Yep!" Tobi responds easily, probably trying to not give away how frightened he really is. "Good luck!"
"I'll be back soon, Tobi," I whisper as I shut the panel. We hear stirring from the kitchen so we all sprint and sit in our seats, going back to eating our food. I'm not very hungry anymore, almost sick with anticipation. My stomach feels like it's in knots and I want to cry. But I put on my brave face as Sasori starts to come around.
A/N: Yes, The long awaited chapter of S-Class Babies? It is finally out. Aren't you all so happy? XD
Okay, this is partly because one of my reviewers suggested that I do the babies' POV and partly because I screwed up my pattern. So I'm using Deidara to help me get back on track.
The babies are starting to grow up. (insert gasp) You can tell by that little fit Deidara threw in the beginning.
Hope this turns out long enough and is good enough to keep you around! :D
Thanks for your patience. Please review.