Normal POV

"What do you want with Tobi, hmm?"

"Please, don't act like you don't know."

"But I don't, yeah. Now either tell me what you want with him or get out of here!" Deidara hissed. Mori was smirking at him, and it was beginning to bother the young artist.

"What? Do you not remember making the deal with me?" the dark haired boy began taking slow steps forward through the apartment's front door. Deidara took a step back for every step Mori became closer to him. He wasn't liking what the elder was saying. He didn't remember making any deals with Mori recently, and especially not any that had anything to do with his new found lover.

"What deal? I don't remember ever talking about something like that with you any time recently, yeah." The hallway was too narrow, and Deidara was left pressed against the wall. For once, Mori didn't pin him to the stupid barrier that always kept him from getting away. Instead, he just stood there ominously in front of him, that uncanny smirk plastered across his face.

"So you don't remember, huh? Well, then perhaps I should remind you." Mori loomed closer to Deidara, making said blonde extremely uneasy. "You and I made a deal that said I would stop trading sex with you for money, in exchange for him coming to live with me as my personal slave/servant. I would of course, continue to pay you your normal share."

Deidara was taken aback by the words spilling out of Mori's mouth. He certainly never remembered saying any of this, and he didn't think he ever would; why would he sell Tobi away like that?

"What the hell are you talking about, hmm? I never talked to you about anything like that!"

"Oh, but you did. Just ask your precious little Tobi. I'm sure he knows all about it." Mori emphasized on the word "precious". Deidara knew he couldn't have known about the things they'd done; it wasn't like he was there with them, but he got the feeling that Mori just knew. He always did.

"Fine, I'll ask him right now, yeah!" Deidara spoke with false confidence. Inside, he was having an inner battle of thoughts. On one side, he had no idea how Mori could think that they had ever made such a deal. On the other side, he was confused and panicking about why Tobi would know anything about it while he didn't. After all, Mori was claiming that Deidara was the one who made the deal, right? Was Tobi hiding something from him?

In the jumble of thoughts flashing through his mind, one stuck out in particular. At first, it seemed random, just a small idea that had haphazardly popped up. However, the more it lingered at the front of his thoughts, the more it connected.

Almost a week ago, he and Tobi had switched bodies. There was a time of approximately two hours where one looked like the other, and the people around them would think it was who they were seeing. They hadn't been together at the time either, so each one was able to do anything in the other's body without the other ever knowing it. It was beginning to make sense now.

If Deidara's assumptions were right, then this "deal" was really made by Tobi. Of course, he knew Mori was painfully intelligent, so chances were Mori would have known this all along, This would also explain why Mori said that Tobi would know about this deal while Deidara didn't.

Yes, this theory made sense of everything, and Deidara prayed that it was wrong.

The blonde quickened his pace on his way back to the kitchen where the boy of question was still waiting. Tobi was currently moving the breakfast pancakes from the frying pan to the plate, a naive smile still on his face. Deidara inhaled deeply in an attempt to calm his static nerves. He slowly dawdled over to the energetic boy.

Deidara had never been one to ease into things. He was usually quick and to the point, and never really cared for the other's feelings, but he did care this time, and he knew there was no way to worm his way around it. It was best if he just said it. "Tobi, hmm?"

"Yeah, Deidara?" Tobi turned around to look at Deidara. The tone in the blonde's voice confused him. It sounded like...worry? Was it distrust? Either way it didn't sound too good.

"Tobi, the person at the door, it's Mori." Deidara said this with the corners of his mouth firmly set into a frown of disgust.

"What? Mori? Why's he here? Wait, don't tell that he-"

"He wants to see you, yeah." Deidara interrupted. Tobi just gaped at the blonde in front of him, and said blonde stared right back, knowingly.

Tobi's POV

'Did he figure it out? Did Mori tell him? Oh crap, what do I say?'

My mouth moved with words that never came out, and my heart picked up speed. I could feel it pounding through my rib cage, making it hard to breath. I had to swallow a few times before that lump in my throat went away long enough for me to speak.

"What... what does he want?" I asked nervously.

"He wants to confront you about a deal that I supposedly made. Problem is, I don't remember making this deal he's told me about, but he's said that for some reason, you would know more about it than I would. So would you care to tell me why he told me to ask you about it?"

So Mori did tell him. I wasn't sure how much Deidara knew-and I didn't really want to know-but I could safely assume that he knew enough to be thoroughly pissed at me. At first I was puzzled at how Mori knew that it was really me that had made the arrangements, but of course he knew; this was Mori. The question now was what to say that wouldn't hurt things more than they already were. Nothing intelligent or crafty was coming to mind, so I resorted to the default: tell the truth. After all, that's all you really can do in a situation like this, right?

"Well, Sempai, I'm guessing you already know the answer to that. What are you going to say about it?" He gave me a stern once over before speaking again. I couldn't tell what he was thinking; he always had a way of hiding his emotions when he wanted to.

"What am I going to say, hmm? Well, first off, how you could be so stupid to think that this was a good idea is beyond me Is this what your nightmares have been about? If so, maybe you should pay attention to them; they were trying to tell you made a giant mistake. Second of all, why didn't you tell me? Can you not trust me? Is that it? Didn't I just prove to you last night that I trust you? You're the only other person besides Mori that I've done it with, and on top of that, I wanted it! There's a reason I don't have many friends, yeah. And you know why that is? Because it takes years for me to trust people!

"Tobi, it took me not even a month to trust you! And now you've just proven that you still don't trust in me. I can understand that you did this because you care about me, but I care about you, too! If you really wanted me to be happy, you should have considered that it just might hurt me more than you to see you be taken advantage of by that douche bag, Mori!"

I stayed silent for a long time. I hadn't thought about that at all. I guess in a way he was right; even after all of that, I still didn't think he cared enough to be upset about this ordeal. I just thought he'd be too relieved to have such a burden taken off his shoulders that he wouldn't feel anything else. I was wrong. This goes to show that you can never make assumptions when it comes to Deidara.

"I'm sorry... I never thought of that... What are we going to do about it?"

"What can we do about it, hmm? You make a deal with Mori, and that's that, yeah. You can't get out of it, so it'd be pointless for me to try to do anything. This is one screw up you can't get out of." He said resentfully. That's when-speak of the devil (literally)-Mori decided to amble in like we weren't in the middle of a crisis here.

"I see everything's been sorted out, ne? Well, I hate to break up you two love birds, but I think I'll take the brat now, and be on my way-"

"Wait!" Deidara tugged me out of the kitchen and into the hallway where the bedrooms were. "Tobi, listen, yeah. This is just happening really fast, but I need you to promise me you won't do anything with him with your consent. Don't betray me like that... I don't think I could handle it, yeah."

Out of all the things that had been said, I think that hit me the hardest. There were no visible tears, not even that slight catch in the throat that people get when they're trying not to cry, but it's the emotions that never get through that hurt the most. I laced my arm around the small of his back and pulled him into me. I felt the small drops of salt water gather at the edge of my eyes.

"I promise." I replied.

He nodded into my chest and pulled away. "I'll tell him that you're getting a few things to take with you."

"Sounds good." I said. It didn't really sound good, though. Nothing did. Everything had become solemn, and I doubted I'd even be able to pull of a fake smile. I jus hoped Mori wouldn't insist I look happy, because I wouldn't be able to do it.

There wasn't much of my things that were worth salvaging for where I was going. I put the few clothes I had and unceremoniously stuffed them into a large bag that I found in the closet, then I added some hygiene supplies, and finally, I snuck one of Deidara's pillows from his bed and added that to the bag. I wanted at least one thing of his to remind me of this place. There wasn't anything else to pack that appealed to me, so I left it at that and took the half full cotton bag back to the kitchen where Deidara and Mori were.

Deidara sat on the counter, seeming very interested in the stone work on the surface. Mori leaned against the wall parallel to Deidara, foot tapping impatiently and glaring at the floor. The only sound to be heard was my scuffles across the stone floor as I made my entrance. Mori got off the wall when he noticed my arrival, but Deidara continued to say nothing, and did not look at me.

"Is that all? Dang, you really travel light, doncha?" Mori eyed my bag, amused. I didn't say anything in reply, so he shrugged. "Well, no point in just standing here, eh? We'll be on our way now. Later, DeiDei!" Mori grabbed my arm in a near death grip and he dragged me along behind him out the door. As we left the kitchen, I could have sworn I hear Deidara whisper a sad "Good-bye" to me.

On the long walk to Mori's new house-and my new prison-I began to silently cry to myself. I didn't get it. Everything had been going so well not twelve hours ago, and now I felt like things couldn't get worse. I knew it was all my own fault, but I still wished there was someone else to blame. There was Mori, of course, but he wasn't the one who had come up with this stupid idea in the first place.

It was all because of my own stupidity, and despite knowing now that it hurt Deidara as well, I would keep doing this if it meant protecting Deidara from Mori.