I finally had a chance to be on! The weekend was a busy one and all week I'm going to be at GEMS, an Army sponsored program at White Sands Missile Range at their Research Laboratory for...Survivability and Lethality is what I think it was called. Yeah, it was. It is a truly amazing program though I don't plan to join the army or be affiliated with them in any way, but I get paid 100$ just for going and it's pretty damn fun, so it's all good =]

It's almost my birthday, yay =] August 16. I'm gonna be 15!! (Finally .) Hehehe.

AND my internet will get cut off somewhere around August 17, because mother dear decided to cancel her bank account and well, yeah, the internet people can't withdraw any money from a nonexistent account. So I will be missing for a while, and will probably have to use the school computers. I probably won't get internet until September or October, I cannot be sure.

Anyway, I want to thank you all for reviewing, and let's get on with the story! Enjoy!

Why does it seem that when you're dreading something, time starts to behave a little mischievously and goes faster than it should? Thursday arrived surprisingly fast, a cloudy and cold day. According to the weather forecast, Amegakure would soon be seeing the first snowfall of the year. Far from making Deidara happy, the news was just something more to dread for the blonde.

Konan dropped off Deidara in front of his house, wished him good luck, and drove off. Deidara sighed and was about to take out his keys when the front door burst open.

"Oh! You're home already," Oigimi said, smiling. "Well, then, let's go."

Deidara waited until she had her back turned to him so that he could mouth various obscenities to thin air. Reluctantly, he stepped into the car and slammed the door closed, determined to show he was not pleased about meeting the man that had almost killed him.

"It'll be fine," Oigimi said, closing the door as she got in.

"Sure it will," Deidara said, his voice dripping sarcasm.

The ride to the restaurant was a long one, not to mention a boring one. Deidara would've been glad to see the parking lot of the restaurant had he not known who they were meeting inside.

After taking in Deidara's appearance with a critical look on his face, the waiter showed them to their table, where a familiar someone was already sitting. A woman was sitting on his left. Her dark hair had been cut just below the ears and she had piercing green eyes. She wore no makeup, but this suited her. She was the first to turn and, upon catching sight of Deidara, turned away in disgust.

"You came," Danzo said, his expression unreadable. He did not stand to greet them, but merely stared at them as they took a seat.

Deidara took the seat in front of the dark-haired woman, wanting to be as far away from his father as possible. She didn't look pleased. Oigimi sat in front of Danzo and looked down at the table, fumbling around with the clasp of her purse and determinedly avoiding Danzo's eyes.

Another waiter approached them and handed them all menus. Deidara declined his and went back to staring at the salt shaker. He could sense the woman's eyes surveying him from the top of her menu. He quickly looked in her direction, glaring slightly, and she quickly looked away.

"This is Kaori," Danzo said, turning Oigimi's attention to the dark-haired woman, who smiled. Oigimi returned the smile only because she felt like she should, her azure eyes settling back on Danzo in an instant. "I've told her all about you, Oigimi."

"Pleased to meet you," Oigimi said softly, not meeting Kaori's eyes.

Kaori did not respond, but kept throwing dirty looks in Deidara's direction.

"And this is my...this is Deidara," Danzo said, and it made Deidara furious to hear how he had been introduced. He'd rather not admit that Deidara was his son, then.

"Your son," Deidara said stiffly, not facing him and glaring now at the cover of Oigimi's menu as if hoping it would burst into flame. It didn't.

Kaori stared for a few seconds at Kaori. "Pleased to meet you, Deidara."

Deidara turned to face her. "Yeah...whatever," he added under his breath.

A few minutes later, the same waiter that had brought them their menus, came back to take their orders. He took the menus and walked away, tucking his pen behind his ear for safe-keeping. Oigimi watched him leave and then turned back to Danzo.

"So...so what brings you to Ame?" Oigimi said, drumming her fingers on the table lightly. Deidara suspected she did not want to ruin her manicure.

"Kaori-chan wanted a change of scenery...Konoha was too sunny for her liking," Danzo said.

Change of scenery? If that was true, and Deidara doubted very much that it was, he would break up with Konan. Deidara looked at Kaori again and saw that this was not the woman Danzo had left Iwa with. The other one had been much, much younger- and a redhead. He knew Oigimi would not realize this: the night Danzo had left, Oigimi had been very drunk. He decided not to mention it to her...just yet.

"Ame has much cooler weather. It's relaxing," Kaori said. "What about you, Deidara? Do you like it here?"

Surprised at the sudden question, Deidara merely stared at Kaori for a few seconds before answering. "Kind of...not really."

She raised her eyebrows and turned away.

"He's just having some trouble adjusting," Oigimi said with a small smile. "But he's got himself a girlfriend already!"

You idiot bitch...

Deidara's eyes flickered to Oigimi and he did not want to know what Danzo's response to this would be. He really hoped he wouldn't care.

He was wrong.

"Oh you do, do you?" Danzo said softly, turning to Deidara. The blonde quickly lowered his eyes, afraid to look up at the older man.

"Yes," he replied forcefully.

"And who is she?"

Deidara hesitated. "Her name is Konan..."

He saw Danzo's face pale at the name, and could not understand why. The man quickly recovered from this and just turned away, striking up an entirely different conversation with Oigimi and Kaori.

When the food arrived, Deidara excused himself and went to the bathroom. He didn't really need to go, he just wanted to get away from the table. He couldn't stand being near Danzo any longer. He practically ran inside. It was empty. He rushed over to a sink, flipped his hair out of his face, and began washing his face with hot water. The blonde turned off the water, grabbed a paper towel, and scrubbed his face, leaning against the wall.

"I never should've come...should've ditched school or something," Deidara muttered, his voice muffled beneath the paper towel that he was pressing to his face. He crumpled it up in time to see Danzo stepping into the bathroom.

Deidara froze instantly and fell into an even worse state when he saw Danzo approaching him.

"You haven't changed at all, you disgust me," Danzo said, looking around to check that the bathroom really was empty. "Should've seen the look on your face when you saw me..."

Deidara remained silent, hoping nothing bad would come out of this.

"Who is your mother seeing?" Danzo asked.

"No one," Deidara heard himself say.

"'No one'," Danzo repeated. "Bullshit. Who is she seeing?"

"I told you, no one!" Deidara said. He was unsure as to why he was lying for Oigimi, but he continued to do it anyway.

And Danzo punched him. Not that hard of course, but still, blood trickled from the corner of Deidara's mouth. In a matter of seconds, Deidara was plunged into countless flashbacks of the abuse he had suffered from Danzo. His body went rigid, and all he could do was stand there, looking at Danzo, who seemed to realize what he had done and looked even angrier than before.

"You keep your mouth shut around your mother about this," he growled, and left the bathroom.

When Danzo left, Deidara was still standing in the corner of the bathroom, frozen with fright. Slowly, he was able to move, and he hastily wiped the blood off his rapidly swelling lip.

The table was a long way from the bathroom but there was an exit about halfway there. Deidara quickly made up his mind. He was going to leave, he didn't care what Oigimi said.

"Son of a bitch..." Deidara muttered darkly under his breath, walking outside as fast as he could. To his surprise, it was extremely cold outside now, and a breeze was blowing, which only made it worse. "Fuck..."

He took out a cigarette and stared at it for a while before sticking it in his mouth. As he fumbled around with his already numb fingers for his lighter, he suddenly and silently wondered whether he'd ever be able to quit smoking.

I don't like Kaori. She should go crawl into a hole and DIE. Hahaha. Ugh...I just stained the keyboard with charcoal because I was drawing and now the whole desk is messy and I don't know what to do!!! But you know what YOU can do? R&R. Hehe. Thanks!