...i had something i was going to say here but now i don't remember...

WARNING: swearing, stupidity and yaoi.

Disclaimer:...

CHAPTER FOURTEEN – Sasori's P.O.V

Deidara was due to be getting out today. Bail was finally posted and I gave the money to Itachi since I was on a mission.

Now occasionally – and I'm really glad Deidara was never given missions like this – we're sent out to remind people to pay what they owe. Typically, loan sharks and the like have people to do these things for them, but independent individuals who've leant out money, can always turn to the Akatsuki – or Oto – to aid in getting back what they've borrowed out.

It's a great stress reliever; being paid to beat the crap out of somebody. Especially when you can tell that person is a totally asshole anyway. It actually reminded me of my old life as a drug dealer – yes, I used to deal drugs – where I would give people a week to pay me before taking what they owed out of them and anything they owned.

Everybody I used to associate with back then was either a deadbeat or a loser. There were a lot of shit parents as well; I can't tell you how many times I was offered a kid for just a quick fix. Of course I never took the offer. More often than not I'd end up beating the useless excuse for a mother or father, to the point where they couldn't even remember why they were there.

Same with the guy I was sent to see today. I could tell he was a deadbeat dad. I could see the shame and guilt in his eyes but it was heavily masked by a want for something else; something like an addiction. And as I kept hitting him, ignoring the blood and tears – somehow, they always managed to pull tears from somewhere in their black hearts – I really couldn't feel sorry for him.

On a different note; Deidara was getting out today. I know I've already mentioned it but the fact that he would be free today only made my mission seem more real.

Hidan had advised us when a good time to do it would be. He still had his connections in Oto – even if he had almost killed them all – and he knew when the next major heist would be. He even knew a guy who would take care of the more important details for us. Despite that it would mean he and Deidara would never see each other again, Hidan was all for our plan.

And the brat, well he didn't suspect a thing. It was actually kind of sad really.

I took a bus home after I had completed my mission. $1000 just for beating some guy up. But I got off about a block away from the building so I could get the brat some jelly babies, seeing as how I had eaten his entire stash.

I wouldn't tell him till the last possible moment, right before I took him out. Wow, it sort of felt like I'd be taking him out back to shot him between the eyes or something. But I wouldn't. That's not how this was going to happen.

But I could already see the look on his face when I said it and something about that uncertain fear made me smile as I clutched a bag of jelly babies in a blood drenched hand.

Only a few more weeks and this nightmare was going to be over.

Deidara's P.O.V

The bail was set, at $1500 which I had easily saved in a couple of days. I was free the day it was set – Sasori ended up using some of my Akatsuki money to free me – and Itachi came to pick me up since Danna had an early mission. He looked tired but I guess he would be with Kisame insisting on taking on my missions. There were a lot more Oto involved missions, as Sasori had informed me.

I guess by coming here, I'd really screwed things up for my friend.

He also mentioned Konan had been really sick lately; she was having trouble sleeping, throwing up all the time and bitching out for no reason.

I spared my cellmate a short farewell before the guards dragged me off, and left him attempting to coax a spider down off of the wall.

Itachi brought me some clothes to change into but I was mostly looking forward to having a proper shower for the first time in a month, with hot water and boundaries between me and the next person.

"You smell like shame," Itachi commented as we drove.

"And you smell like despair, un," I countered.

"Cops have been watching us a lot lately. Not that it stops Pein from sending them out. They almost got caught the other day, stealing a golden clock from a pent house downtown. And the run-ins with Oto are getting worse; I think we're all cursed."

"Well you and I certainly are," I said.

"Like Tobi and Hidan."

The car stopped outside the familiar apartment building but Itachi didn't get out, he couldn't park here.

"Yeah but we found Hidan again, didn't we, un?"

"More like he fell righty back into our lives," he sighed, "you know, I thought when I was finished high school; I'd be done with you lunatics."

I chuckled, "come on Itachi un, you know you love us."

A car behind us beeped before he could answer and I rolled my eyes and got out. Itachi drove to find a parking spot and I went upstairs. Just like the first time, climbing all those stairs was a real mission and this time I didn't have my jelly babies to offer support. But as I reached the fourth floor, I was reminded of the reason I did this, the reason I did everything, including braving prison for over a month.

Sasori stood out in the hall, leaning against a wall with a smoke in his hand and specks of dried blood on his face and clothes. He exhaled a thick cloud of smoke, his eyes almost closed, and a content look on his face. It was a perfect image, gone as soon as it had appeared right in front of me but forever etched in my memory. It had to be removed to make room for the next moment.

"I see un," I said, shattering the perfection provided but the silence and garnering his attention, "this is what you did with all my hard earned money?"

He looked up slowly, bored expression never fading, "you're back," he said.

"Yeah un, Itachi just –"

My words were cut off as he pressed his lips against mine roughly, when he had gotten that close I couldn't quite remember but I didn't question it and melted into the kiss we had both been denied countless times in the past few weeks.

Soon I felt him licking my bottom lip, demanding entrance and I gladly complied, opening my mouth and allowing myself to be backed against a wall.

He tasted like smoke, not surprisingly at all but there was also the faint taste of jelly babies – that bastard had been eating my candy! And just like the first time I was here – except back then, I had just about to yell at Sasori – someone cleared their throat loud from the staircase and we quickly pulled apart.

"Déjà vu," Sasori said.

"Worse than the fucking prison guards un," I added.

Itachi had that familiar look of amusement in his eyes.

"Are they waiting for us?" he asked.

"Yeah, at your place. Konan ordered pizza."

"Not from that one place…?"

"No they'll probably never deliver here again, let alone let us set foot in their store."

"It's a shame; they made the best pizza ever."

I looked between them, waiting for more explanation but the conversation seemed to be over so I followed them as they headed into the all too familiar apartment next door, set out just like mine used to be with the large table with room for the entire Akatsuki. Kisame, Kakuzu and Hidan sat at the table and barely looked up as we walked in, they were whispering, not at all like either of them but actually, Itachi and Sasori had been acting weirdly as well, whenever they had visited me in prison. Even now they seemed on edge.

The sound of coughing and retching could be heard from the bathroom and I cringed, feeling bad for Konan.

"Wow un, she's really sick isn't she?" I asked.

"Yeah, Pein's taking her to the doctors tomorrow, he's really worried about her," Sasori said.

Now the boys at the table looked up, a toothy grin on the face of the blue man and a look as stoic as ever on the face of the other, while Hidan looked uncertain as to how he felt about seeing me.

"Welcome back, Deidara," Kisame said, "how'd prison treat ya?"

"Hmm, well I didn't get raped, so I guess it was alright un," I said, smiling slight as Hidan made an obscene comment.

Pein came back into the room suddenly, looking pale and sick but his purple eyes lit up when he saw me.

"Ah your back," he said, his voice as casual as if I'd just gone out to get milk, "good, I'll have some work for you later in the week, actually I should have something ready for you by tomorrow."

Of course it was inevitable that he'd still send me out even with the conditions of my bail, but I was excited to be getting back to it. There was only so much living I would get to do before my trial and I wanted to make the most of it.