Two chapters today because this one is just a short little interlude uwu
Matsuri doesn't think he ever needed a drink more than after seeing Konoha reduced to rubble. Except he couldn't have a drink because everything that had once made Tapu was buried under stone and wood and there wasn't a single piece left straight and whole. He imagined that their apartment on the other side of the main street didn't look much better – he had split up with his father and brother because he really didn't want to see their home destroyed until he absolutely had to. Tapu was bad enough with all the memories he had made there.
What a fantastic start to the week.
But at least his family shared their fate with many others and he wasn't the only one lost on where to start with rebuilding a fucking life. But then again he had friends who'd been lucky enough to get by unscathed and offered their help in every way possible.
One of them was staying with them.
And if that wasn't the most awkward introduction to Mizuiro's mother ever. They had seen each other in passing before of course but not once had they properly talked to each other and he was pretty sure she had figured out how in love with Mizuiro he was within seconds of shaking his hand. But she just smiled at him and didn't even say a word when he was placed in Mizuiro's room for sleeping arrangements. Not that he would have tried anything with her friends and that guy Deidara there. Even though admittedly he would have loved to have five minutes alone with her to just hold her, make sure that she was really okay after this. But he got his shit together and kept quiet because they all had bigger problems and she already looked on edge as it was.
Instead, he put his focus on Deidara.
Deidara, who for some reason everybody seemed to mistrust to some extent just because of some dumb rumors going around town. And wow wasn't that a show of how big of a scaredy cat most ninjas where after all if they let dumb rumors cloud their judgment. Granted they were partially true as Mizuiro told them. But if she didn't care then why should they? And really if he based his judgments on every rumor told – true or false – then he wouldn't have friends at all. Tapu had always been the best place to hear everybody shit talk everybody but he'd never cared much for it.
Either way though, when they had down time after the work for the day was done and they had eaten dinner, he tried his damn best to strike up a conversation with him. It had kind of felt like he was approaching a caged wild animal but it worked, if mostly because of how he wasn't deterred by being snapped at and showed endless patience and humor in return.
In the end, he got a new friendship out of it.
A friendship he regretted making the second life returned a little more to normal again – which was quicker than expected but after Konoha received help from other villages the rebuilding went much faster. But without everyone constantly around both Mizuiro and Deidara seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and suddenly they weren't avoiding each other anymore like they had been the first few weeks. No instead he followed her nearly everywhere in the house and garden and their quiet conversations made clear that they had a relationship that ran deep.
And it irked Matsuri. Because while it clearly wasn't of romantic or sexual nature yet it still was much more than he had ever had with her in all the six years they had known each other and he wanted it. He was jealous even though he knew he had no claim to her and Deidara had never made any claim on her either. But just the thought that he could, was enough to make him want to hate him or at least make it difficult for him. At the same time though he was very much aware of how much she actually meant to him as the only person on his side for the duration of the past year. So he would never ever actually make a move to try to take that away.
He wouldn't win either way that much had been clear from the time he had taken her virginity and she hadn't even bothered staying afterwards – he knows now that it was mostly because of how embarrassed she had been and how she really didn't know how to behave around him but at the time it had still stung a little. But at least it had shown him that while she liked him, she didn't love him and it made it easier to live with just having her to himself once in a while and being her friend the rest of the time.
Now though he's pretty sure the sexual part of their relationship is coming to an end. And really he should have probably fallen out of love with her a while ago too. It would have saved him so much trouble.