By the way, apparently there's an actual like, thing about Jashinism. I mean, it's only an internet community but they're treating it like a religion… It's really surreal honestly… Kind of scary. But y'know, it's there, it exists. ((WARNING it's EXTREMELY triggering – the photos have a lot of blood and self-harm and stuff.))

But yeah. Welcome to the 14th chapter! Wow, that's a lot. This is getting long…

Deidara sat at his work table, totally stumped about what to do. He had just recently destroyed his previous collection, and was now at a loss of what to put out next. He spun around in his work chair, bored out of his mind, lacking inspiration. After twirling a few times, his eyes fell on a small figurine on his desk, in the corner, swept away and forgotten about until now.

It was the little clay figure of Hinata that he made a few days ago, when he picked up Hinata from her house. He couldn't believe that it was still there – it was probably the longest living piece of his art that ever lived. Deidara grabbed it from its place in the corner, and upon further observation he concluded that it was something he needed to show Hinata. He saw that Hinata wasn't picked up from her house yet (according to Tobi) so he volunteered to go pick her up himself.

He put on the same blue cardigan from last time, and left the shop, whistling a happy tune along the way. The Hinata figurine was in his pocket, and he couldn't wait to show her.

When he arrived at her place, he knocked on the door and waited excitedly for her to answer the door. However, a moment afterward he recalled the last time he was here, and how Hinata was being chewed out by her dad and how her dad glared at him last time. The door began to open, and to his utter dismay, Hinata's father opened the door. But it didn't look like he was answering the door – Hiashi Hyuga looked like he was about to leave the house on business.

There was an awkward moment where Hiashi didn't notice Deidara standing there until he bumped into his shoulder on the way out of his house. But when their shoulders made eye contact, the look on Hiashi's face could have killed a man. Deidara felt his stomach sink for a moment, but stood his ground anyway. Hiashi closed the door and faced Deidara head-on, an intimidating aura all around him.

"Who are you?" Hiashi demanded. For a moment, Deidara forgot his own name, but when it came to him he said, "D-Deidara, hm. I'm friends with your daughter." Hiashi looked at Deidara for what seemed like an eternity. "I will not stand for this foolishness. My daughter is enough of a disgrace as it is. I don't need you to help her along the path of stupidity," Hiashi said sternly to Deidara, who frowned at all the harsh words he used.

How dare he call Hinata a disgrace? How could he say that about his own family – his own daughter? Did he not see the great contributions she's made to the people around her? This was the man that regularly took Hinata's smile away – and for what? Because she wasn't a great ninja? Person? Anything? Hinata, the breath of fresh air for the Akatsuki Shop and the most important girl in his life?

A disgrace?

Hiashi began to walk down the front porch, but Deidara said to him, "Hinata is not a disgrace, hm." This stopped Hiashi in his tracks, and made him glare back at Deidara. "Excuse me?" he said, disbelief outlining his features. Deidara glared back at Hiashi and repeated, "Hinata Hyuga is not a disgrace – not to her family, and especially not to us." Hiashi shook his head, beginning to walk away again. "I've not the time for this. Do what you will, I don't care," he said, absently waving a hand.

Hinata heard some of the commotion from her open window, and by this time had opened the door to see what was happening. Deidara was huffing with anger, and yelled after Hiashi, "HINATA IS THE GREATEST THING TO HAPPEN TO ME – YOU'RE THE DISGRACE –" At this, Hiashi swiftly turned around and grabbed Deidara's shirt collar, pulling and lifting him close to his face. Hinata gasped, but was frozen in fear of her father.

"You listen here, you insolent boy," Hiashi seethed, "I don't care what you do with my daughter – she has embarrassed herself enough without your help – but don't you ever, ever speak to me like you know what it's like – Do you understand?" Hiashi didn't wait for Deidara to respond. He only dropped him and continued to walk to his destination, which was the limousine waiting for him on the curb. Deidara quickly got up, about to chase after the vehicle, but was stopped when he heard a muffled sob come from behind him.

Hinata was kneeling on her porch, her breathing ragged and her hands covering her face in shame and fear. She had a distant look in her eye, as if she were lost in her own world. Deidara kneeled in front of her, unsure of what to do. He placed a hand on her shoulder, but she didn't seem to notice. "Hinata, hm –" he brushed her hair away from her face, but absolutely nothing he did seemed to reach her. He was growing more worried by the second, but he didn't know what to do.

Her breathing was ragged, uneven – she was hyperventilating almost. She was saying things, but they were incoherent and mixed up. Hinata felt so embarrassed about the state she was in at the moment, but she couldn't find a way out of it. She was so affected by what her father said about her, and then even more affected when he almost assaulted Deidara. Then she was overcome with guilt that she didn't do anything to help him. She was overwhelmed by all the emotion that crippled her everything.

"Uh – Hinata, uh – Just breathe?" Deidara cupped her face in his hands, desperately wiping the tears off her face. Hinata managed to choke out small phrases – "I'm sorry – didn't – I couldn't – help you –" Deidara shook his head and pressed his forehead to hers. "Hey, hey, I'm fine, hm. See? Nothing," he said softly, slowly holding her hand. She seemed to be able to breathe easier, but not by much. He decided to pick her up bridal-style and bring her back to her room, where it was familiar and safe. He wandered down the hall to the kitchen and brought her a glass of water to sip on while she calmed down.

Hinata's breaths were finally coming at a normal pace, but she still had tears streaming down her face. She covered her face in embarrassment. Deidara didn't dare touch her – she looked so fragile. He heard her sigh softly and say to him, "I'm… I'm sorry you had to… see me like this…" She ran a hand through her hair and continued to cover half her face with her hand. She turned away from Deidara and closed her eyes. "This… I never wanted anyone to see me this way…"

Deidara slowly reached out to her and took her hand in his. He leaned closer to her and said, "I'll always want to see you, hm." He moved her hands so that their fingers interlaced, and Hinata was suddenly very aware of how close Deidara was to her. She briefly recalled the time with Sasori and blushed a little, wondering if the same thing would happen here. She didn't know what she would do if something did happen between them right now. What if Deidara hated her after something happened – like Sasori did?

Hinata couldn't bear the thought of losing Deidara, too. She almost felt like crying again, but she didn't want Deidara to worry. However, he noticed her sudden bout of sadness anyway, and was currently wiping away the tears that were falling on their own. "Hinata, hm, it's okay," he said softly, giving up on wiping her tears away and just hugging her. She hugged him tightly, saying muffled apologies and thank you's that made Deidara stop her with a kiss.

A kiss.

Hinata barely knew it was happening because it was so sudden and spontaneous and surprising and other adjectives that began with the letter "S." Deidara pulled away slowly, and said a small apology to her before smiling a bit. Hinata barely remembered how it felt to be kissed since it was so quick. She briefly touched her lips, and then she immediately looked up at Deidara, somehow expecting a look of worry on his face. But he looked content and even somewhat amused with the look on her face.

Hinata wanted to ask him why he did that, but she somehow knew better than to ask Deidara why he did anything. Deidara kissed her because he felt like it, because it felt like something he should do at that time. There was no reason to ask "Why," because it just made sense to him, and the answer came so naturally that he didn't feel the need to explain. Despite this, Deidara still said, "I didn't know how to tell you to stop apologizing, hm," as an offering of explanation. Hinata nodded and looked down, paying special attention to the fluttering in her stomach. Is this what would have happened with Sasori? The thought didn't bother as much because she was so distracted by Deidara's presence.

There was a silence between them, and for a split second Deidara thought that Hinata didn't like the kiss. For a split second, he considered that she didn't understand the reasons behind his actions, and for that split second, Deidara wanted to explain himself. But in the second immediately after, he felt Hinata tug on his sleeve to grab is attention, and to his utter surprise and delight, she said,

"Kiss me again."

And they did, and it was a few seconds longer and sweeter and everything about anything was forgotten.

"Well, this is an interesting turn of events," Pein said as he stood in front of a wall of TV screens, each one streaming a security camera feed from an impossible amount of locations. The one screen he was focusing on was his ZetsuCam4000, which was basically Zetsu constantly throwing a camera around on the outside world via plants. Today, the ZetsuCam4000 was watching Hinata and Deidara walking to the shop – about an hour late – and holding hands, being sweet on each other (at least, more than usual.)

Konan walked up to him and casually wrapped an arm around him, and he did the same, draping an arm around her shoulders. She looked at the screen and said, "Oh my, did I just win a bet?" Pein chuckled softly, stroking her hair a little as he watched Deidara and Hinata enter the store.

On another screen, Sasori was seen staring at them from his section of the store. You could see his eyes widen a bit, and then melt back into his usual poker face. Then Sasori skulked back into his room, and didn't come out. Deidara noticed Sasori retreat into his room, and a sudden realization seemed to dawn on him. For a brief moment, panic struck his face, but went unnoticed by Hinata. Deidara anxiously looked back at Sasori's section, guilt clearly on his features.

"I don't know if you've won this one yet, Konan," Pein said after watching the scene. "There's still quite a bit of summer left for us to find out."

FUUUCK. FUCK. HOLY SHIT. Deidara thought aggressively to himself as Pein appeared to tell Hinata what to do for the day. He forgot about how Sasori confided in him about possibly having a thing for Hinata, and how it was also painfully obvious to pretty much everyone that Sasori had a thing for Hinata. What was he thinking, moving in on her when just the other day he was being a good friend to Sasori? Deidara felt extremely guilty but he couldn't bring himself to let Hinata know. How would he even bring this up? He felt like such an asshole. He was an asshole. He was currently being an asshole.

Hinata looked at Deidara before dispatching herself off to work somewhere else in the shop. He was standing stiffly, facing the shelf and holding one of his small clay birds. Hinata happily walked to him and gently brushed a hand on his arm, causing him to jump. He didn't realize that he was so wrapped up in his thoughts. The bird fell to the ground with a dissatisfying crumble and the two of them just watched it fall. Both of them briefly recalled the last time they accidentally broke on of his creations and almost smiled at the memory.

Deidara felt Hinata squeeze his arm lightly for his attention again and heard her say, "I'll… see you at lunch?" She gave him a small smile, and he smiled back at her. "Yeah, I'll see you, hm." He slowly lifted her hand and kissed it and enjoyed the blush it created on her cheeks. She laughed a bit and waved off the pleasantly awkward feeling she got, and he watched her walk off. He couldn't help but always try to make her smile, to get her to laugh or something. It was always comforting to see her smile.

He discreetly made the destroyed bird sculpture explode into tiny, sweep-able dust particles and went to go grab a broom and dustpan. He absently swept up the small mess, not paying much mind because dust was a familiar substance in his line of work. He kept sweeping until he decided to just tidy up his entire section, which would busy him for the rest of the day.

Sasori could sense it. He could see it in their body language, their stupid, expressive, beautiful body language – a language that he could not express even the tiniest bit. He could barely even express the strong ache in his chest that should have worried him – since, y'know, it was the only thing keeping him alive at the moment – but he couldn't care less at the moment. The only thing he could register was that he was feeling things. And he was feeling them very intensely.

Everything was so mixed up – anger, jealousy, regret, sadness – seeing the two of them together like that drove him nuts. There was a chaos growing inside of him that he didn't know how to tame.

On the outside, Sasori just walked back into his room. There was no heavy breathing, no stiff shoulders, no stomping because he didn't get his way. Everyone saw "Just Sasori," with his indifferent, bored expression. He sat down on his bed and almost felt himself rotting, sinking into the sheets like hot lava – silent but boiling with activity and passion.

Deidara had won the race, and he didn't even know he was running.

TWA

Sorry for the late-ness! I've been kinda busy and somewhat unmotivated lately.

To Guest: You weren't rude at all, I hope you don't ever feel rude for giving any sort of reasonable request or question! I hope this chapter answered it, actually, hehe. Thanks for reviewing!