Suigetsu kicked out at a discarded milk carton. Juugo was crouched with his head between his knees on the curb next to him. The evening wind blew and the setting sun sent purple-orange streaks across the city. Suigetsu clenched his fists a little.

"Do you want to go back, Suigetsu?" Juugo asked nervously. He looked up at the Hōzuki, and was a little shocked at the angry expression on his features.

"Suigetsu?"

"Shut up, Juugo," he said. "I'm thinking,"

"A…about?"

Suigetsu watched as a sleek white car squealed to a stop in front of a traffic light.

"You know who,"

"N-Neji? Suigetsu, we can't—,"
"I know," Suigetsu snapped, then softened on seeing Juugo's fearful face. "But we can't keep going on like this: one day, he's gonna take things too far and I'm gonna fucking bash him,"

"Suigetsu…,"

"I know my capabilities, Juugo. And I know I can do it,"

Deidara had had to wait until the café closed down until he could decorate the window properly. Hidan had left much earlier with Sasori to go find supplies, and the two had been like peas in a pod. Deidara uncapped the pink marker and wrote in capitals: NEW MENU. Beneath, he was going to scribble some of the various new dishes they were going to have. He sighed, feeling a bit chilly, and slumped his head against the glass.

"D…Deidara kun?"

Deidara turned his head. Hinata stood there, with something in her hands. He smiled weakly at her.

"Hey, Hinata," he said flatly. He stood back from the window and walked up to her.

"What's this?"

"Oh…um," Hinata awkwardly held out the tub of Vaseline moisturizer she'd brought him: she had her own at home, but she decided it would be better if she gave Deidara one as a gift, not as a borrowed item. "I bought you this. It's…it's for your hands, because I noticed…,"

Clearly struggling with finding the right words, Deidara beamed at her, actually feeling kind of grateful. He took it and held out a palm. It was less red than yesterday, but nevertheless worn.

"Wow," he said. "I never noticed they were this bad, yeah,"

One of the mouths in his hand chomped lazily. Hinata suddenly recalled that the mouths were part of the reason Sakura found Deidara creepy: to Hinata, they just added to the Iwa's attractiveness. In a quirky way.

"Thanks, then, Hinata-chan," and without thinking, Deidara leaned forward and kissed her gently on the forehead. When he drew away, he was a little surprised himself too, considering all the thoughts he'd been having about Sakura lately. It had just felt like the right thing to do: Deidara hoped it wouldn't look like he was leading her on. Hinata blushed deeply.

"I…I have to go before Father realizes I'm gone," she said quickly, turning away. Deidara glanced back at the unfinished window, then back at Hinata. "Wait,"

Hinata turned around slowly.

Danna won't be back. It'll just be a quick drive.

"I'll drive you," Deidara declared. "I don't want you to get into trouble for doing this for me,"

"Strawberry, Shikamaru?"

"No, he's more of a vanilla person, aren't you, Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru shrugged and ignored Kiba and Naruto, who continued to bicker over his favourite flavor. To be honest, he didn't really care. He just wanted something sweet.

"Just get him a banana split," Sasuke piped up. Everyone looked at him. Then Naruto and Kiba readily agreed.

"That has, like, chocolate, vanilla AND strawberry, doesn't it?" Naruto walked forward with Kiba's wallet. "Hey, lady, can I get a banana split?"

"Sure," the woman behind the counter said.

"I think I'll need two of those," Chōji mashed his lips together and grinned. It made Shikamaru smile.

I'm in good company…he thought.

Sasuke didn't like sweet things that much, so he opted for a lemon sorbet, just to be polite.

The night had progressed without another hitch, but unfortunately Suigetsu hadn't showed up. Sasuke almost wanted to ask Mangetsu where he was, but decided he would see the younger Hōzuki tomorrow at school anyway, so there was really no point.

"Neji, what do you want?"

"Nothing,"

"You're boring," Kiba said, winking and grinning at Sasuke. And for some reason, it made Sasuke feel warm.

"So, Hinata, how's school?"

Deidara turned left after looking out for oncoming traffic. He glanced at Hinata and turned on the windscreen wipers—it wasn't raining, but for some reason his windscreen had gotten kind of wet.

Hinata gripped the seatbelt strapped over her chest tightly. Deidara had turned the volume of his music down to low, but Hinata could tell he liked electro, dance songs. There was a little air freshener just above his air conditioning vents, and a single fish plush hung from his rearview mirror. Otherwise, his car was clean and perfect and well-maintained.

He must love his car.

"It's…it's okay,"

"Sakura not bullying you much, right?" Deidara sneezed into his arm and zoomed past a green traffic light.

"N-no,"

They sat in silence for the last five minutes. Deidara whistled as he pulled up to the curb outside Hinata's house.

"Wow," he said. "Nice house,"

"Thank you, Deidara-kun. For the ride," she quickly undid her seatbelt and got out of the car, still blushing furiously, unable to believe Deidara had given her a ride home.

"No problem. Thanks for the …the cream," he picked up the Vaseline and grinned at her, a little bit of pink returning to his cheeks. Hinata nodded, smiling, and closed the door. Deidara watched her scurry inside before driving off again.

He was turning into the suburb which was dominated by penthouse apartments when he saw a flash of pink. He almost stepped down on the brake in shock.

Sakura…?

She had a black jacket wrapped around her, and when she stepped out of the glass doors, who else but Itachi emerged from behind her. Deidara furrowed his brow and pulled into the bicycle lane after checking for pedestrians and watched, turning his engine off. The blonde absentmindedly chewed on the ends of his hair, his mind erupting and burbling with a million thoughts as he watched.

"Thanks for the jacket, Itachi," Sakura shivered a little. She was originally pretending that it was cold to keep the jacket, but now that she was outside, it actually was chilly. Itachi smiled at her.

"No problem. Just return it to Sasuke tomorrow,"
"Are you going to work tomorrow?"

Itachi shoved his hands in the pockets of his cargo pants. "I think so. I have a meeting," the Uchiha didn't know what the meeting would entail, but Konan had mentioned it, and said she would give him a call to tell him to come in.

"Well, have fun," Sakura took a deep breath, then she stood on tiptoe and gave Itachi a quick kiss on the cheek. She drew away feeling confident, feeling adrenaline rush through her body. She smiled widely, appearing nonchalant, like she kissed everybody on the cheek. "Okay. Bye!"

She disallowed herself to gaze at Itachi any further and walked down the stairs, clutching the two halves of the open jacket together, striding calmly towards the bus stop.

The car's tires squealed as Deidara pressed too hard on the accelerator. He sped down the slope and braked firmly right next to Sakura. He pressed a button, and the window of the front passenger seat slid down. Sakura sighed in exasperation when she saw who it was.

I should have recognized his goddamn car.

"I'll give you a ride," he said, his voice firm. Sakura was a little surprised. She glanced back at Itachi, but he was gone.

"What are you doing here?" she said grumpily, folding her arms indignantly.

"What are you doing here?" Deidara countered. "Get in,"

"No," Sakura hissed. "What if you, like, take me somewhere and rape me?"

"I won't rape you,"

"How would I know?"

Deidara's mouth formed a thin line. His hand touched the Vaseline Hinata had given him.

"Fine," he said finally. It was dark, and there were hardly any people around: the apartment district was always quiet and tranquil, but right now it seemed danger loomed in every shadow. She really does think that low of me…bitch. Deidara put his car into driving gear again and sped off, changing lanes too abruptly and getting beeped by a red sports car.

Rape her? Rape her? Deidara ran through a yellow light. What a nice fucking excuse. He glanced down at the Vaseline. His eyes clouded over with emotion. Hinata, you don't deserve to be brought down to her level. Why do I bother even being nice to her every day? It's my job, yeah, but…he took a right, another right, and then pulled up to the café again. He got all his shit together and got out, slamming the car door closed. The place was just as he left it: pristine, dark, and lonely. He angrily whipped out the blue marker, the folded paper Hidan had scrawled all over, and began writing again.

I've had enough of this, haven't I?

Deidara gritted his teeth. Love sucks like shit. You wanna do yourself a favour, but you can't help but have feelings for a person. You want to be with them, even when they hurt you.

"Deidara,"

Oh, who the fuck is it now—

Deidara turned. "Oh. Hey, Gaara,"

Gaara walked up to him and watched him as he worked: he and Deidara used to be rivals in a competitive art institution which they both attended after school, but after tying in the final exhibit, they both became best of friends. Not the type that talked every day on the phone, but the type that understood each other without saying anything.

"New menu, I see,"

"Yeah," Deidara grunted, rubbing out a mistake with his sleeve. "Times change. People wanna move on and all that, hmmm,"

He glanced at Gaara.

"Do you not have tutor?"

Gaara's father was strict. It was one of the reasons why Gaara was such a silent achiever. The guy shrugged coolly.

"No?" Deidara answered for him. His hands were already starting to ache and he stepped back to look at his handiwork: he'd made pretty good progress in such a short amount of time. His writing was neat and large.

"How have you been, Deidara?"

"Oh ,you know…," Deidara laughed and shrugged, becoming nervous because if there was one person who could see through him, it was Gaara. He knew if he didn't tell the truth, Gaara would make him, eventually. "…just the usual. The café. Dealing with annoying customers,"

"Sakura?"

Deidara felt his cheeks grow hot and he concentrated on making the O perfectly curved before he answered.

"Yeah. Partly,"

Gaara would have raised an eyebrow if he had any. Instead, he just narrowed his eyes a little.

"Deidara, I know you like her,"

Deidara said nothing, just continued writing.

"Has she been…?"

"Yeah," the Iwa admitted grouchily. "Yeah, she's been…yeah... to me. Again," And it's not like it's gonna stop, with her Itachi around.

Gaara sighed a little and sat on the step outside the café. "Deidara, maybe it's time you made your feelings clear,"

"You crazy—,"

"No," Gaara intercepted before Deidara could say more. "I meant your feelings on having her giving you this type of shit every afternoon she passes by. She is a customer; she has an obligation to be polite as well, considering you're not doing anything that is provocative,"

Deidara knew Gaara was right, but didn't want to say it out loud, because as much as he hated how Sakura treated him, he, well, liked her and didn't want her to feel awkward, bad, guilty…he just wanted her to be happy.

I sound so corny.

"You're right, un," he lied.

Gaara said nothing to that. He just watched Deidara as he worked. And for the rest of the time, the two exchanged no words.