Oheyo~

It's 3:30 PM!

I'm tired.

Thanks for reviewing, you~

I had a sort of weird day today, so if the chapter reflects that, I don't take the blame for that. |D

If you're here for an actual chapter and not just me ranting, here you go~ And if you're interested, it's dedicated to people who are reading this... people who reviewed, faved, the works. Specifically I want to mention Laughmaker because I can and AkumaNoDanna and 2kitsune because they're patient when I'm slow~ /which is most of the time, really |D

Words: 2,011 (blah)
Disclaimer: I don't own!
Warnings: Like I said, I had a weird day. And I wrote this when I was tired, too...

Here's chapter 36; 'Pretend'!

Of course, that wasn't all there was to it; it would've been insane if Deidara actually got over driving Sasori out of his own home like that. But Sasori could see that he was trying; trying not to bring it up too often, trying to stop thinking about it as much as he was, trying to think of something else to talk about.

"Do you ever miss your parents?" Deidara asked him lazily.

No matter how pathetic his attempts were sometimes.

Sasori shrugged. "I don't really think about that all too often," he replied without much thought, "But I suppose... If I missed them too much, I would've gone to visit them when I still had a chance. Either that, or I would've never left in the first place. What about yourself?"

The blonde looked up at the sky as he answered, "I miss my mother sometimes. Besides, it would've been cool if she got to meet you... I mean, I think she would've liked you, un. But I'm glad father's dead and buried."

"He's dead?" Sasori blinked, "I think you missed telling me that..."

"Oh?" Deidara replied, going all distant again. "I guess I forgot to mention it, un."

"Do you know anyone whose grave is around here, un?" he asked after a while, as if the previous conversation had never even taken place.

"No," he offered the blonde simply, not willing to flaunt the fact that he really wasn't from around here, because that would lead Deidara back to thinking about home. "Do you?"

Deidara shrugged. "Other than the… The one I showed you, I don't think so, un," he replied hesitantly.

"Sorry."

"Not your fault," the clown responded distantly, staring at the ground with his head rested on his hand while the other continuously poked the ground with a stick. It seemed that he had once again remembered something that he thought was his fault.

Sasori was supposed to remind him that it wasn't actually his fault, that it might have happened either way, that Sasori had actually meant it when he said when he said he was just happy that they were both there, alive and together-

But Deidara cut him off before he even started by raising his hand (the one he had been leaning on). "Don't say it, un."

"You don't know-"

"You were going to tell me not to blame myself, un," Deidara cut him off, nodding to himself.

Sasori frowned, not wanting to be as obvious as he apparently was. "No I wasn't," he insisted bitterly.

Deidara raised a curious eyebrow, looking up at him. "Oh really?" he asked, "What were you going to say, then?"

"I was going to ask you if you were tired," Sasori offered him randomly, "I think I could sleep for a few hours, at least..."

"Not really," the blonde murmured indifferently drawing into a more proper sitting position, "But I could sleep, if you wanted to, un."

Sasori nodded, "I could... But I still didn't quite understand how we can sleep out here... Isn't it going to get cold at night?"

Deidara looked towards the horizon for a few seconds before shrugging. "I'll wake you up before you freeze yourself, promise. And I'll show you how you can sleep out here, un." He motioned for the redhead to move closer, which he didn't obey to, since he didn't quite understand why exactly he should do that.

"I'm not going to bite you," the Joker murmured, appearing to be kind of amused, but more compassionate than not. Then again, he seemed to get some kicks of making fun of Sasori, so that wasn't all too surprising on its own. "Come here, un."

Unhappily (because he wasn't afraid of being bitten, damnit), Sasori scooted closer to him, his muddy eyes narrowed in suspicion.

When he was within an arm's reach, Deidara pulled the redhead close to his body, wrapping both of his arms around the other man and resting his chin on the red strands of hair.

"What are-" Sasori started in a hiss, only to be cut off by a chuckle from the blue-eyed man.

"Shhh," Deidara quieted him down lazily, "I'll keep you warm. And I'll wake you up if anything comes up, un."

"Aren't you going to sleep?" Sasori asked him, suddenly too tired, warm and comfortable to fight him off.

"Sure I am," he replied with a faint, audible smile, "After you fall asleep, I'll sleep as well, un."

Sasori was almost certain that the other was lying, but he was only doing it for Ace's sake, so it was alright.

"I don't think I've ever seen anything that... bad."

Bad as in torn in half in the middle and then cut up again and again and again and then bled to death.

"I have," Deidara responded immediately, raising the man's arm (that was an arm, right?) and appearing to search for a pulse for a few fleeting seconds before letting it drop from his hand again.

I have as in an answer that was positive when it should be everything but that. He should be crying and denying it all and saying anything but I have.

"When?" Sasori asked, "What?" Because Deidara was too young to have seen something like this. It wasn't fair.

"Yesterday," the blonde shrugged indifferently, standing up and brushing his hands and his blade – why did he even have that in his hand? - on his pants, "How do you think he died?"

"Care to remind me, why are we in the forest again?" Sasori asked Deidara annoyedly, mostly because the blonde seemed so determined and happy and cheerful, and Sasori didn't even understand what for.

"The ghost!" the blonde reminded him happily, as if it explained everything. "The one that's been turning everyone into ghosts, un!"

"But if the ghost turns people into ghosts, isn't there a lot of ghosts for us to search for, then?"

"Oh," Deidara murmured, stopping to blink. "Oh, right. Well, don't worry about it. I'm here, and since I'm here, we'll find them all. Nothing bad is going to happen."

"But-" Sasori started, wanting to argue with the logic and lack of.

The blonde merely spun around, "Leave it all up to me~" he announced so cheerfully that it was almost frightening on its own. "I have it all under control, un~"

"I trust you," the redhead promised him lazily, though he knew it was true.

"...hey, do you know what the ghost looks like, un?"

"Of course not," Sasori told him, rolling his eyes, "This was your idea. I know nothing about this."

"Well, it's really scary!" Deidara murmured, apparently trying to convince him, "It looks almost normal - at first - but then you get close and it flashes as if hit by a lightning, and you can see its bones through it's skin when that happens! And then when you touch it, you get electrocuted as well, un!"

"Okay, that sounds scary," Sasori admitted for his sake, "But how are we supposed to do that."

"I'll tell you~" Deidara replied happily, "But first you have to wake up, un."

"What?"

"Wake up. C'mon, Sasori. You've been sleeping long enough already, un..."

His eyes fluttered open, but he wasn't exactly willing to wake up yet. "No... You have to tell me how to find the ghost first..."

Deidara unwrapped his arms from where they were around the redhead's waist, letting him fall forward and hit his face on the ground.

"Hey...!" he complained as he drew himself back up, glaring at the blonde.

"Well, you weren't waking up, un," Deidara murmured with a shrug, as if that made it all fair. "And it's getting kind of cold, so I figured that we could... go on a walk or something. Stay warm, un."

"Do we have to?"

"The alternative is that I keep you warm and freeze myself, so actually... yes, un."

Sighing, Sasori reluctantly agreed to go on a walk with the blonde, though only after noticing that it was kind of foggy and more or less chilly, which led him into thinking that Deidara hadn't probably just said that because he felt like it, but because he actually was getting cold.

"Fine, let's go on your stupid walk, then."

Deidara drew himself up on his feet, then tugging Sasori up by his arm. "Thank you," he muttered, and Sasori wasn't certain if he was sarcastic or not, "I'm glad you're giving me five minutes of your time after I've spent all night trying to keep you warm, un."

Okay, so he was being sarcastic.

"Are you sure we won't run into any ANBU corps?" Sasori asked him, possibly a little paranoid. He stuffed his hands into his pockets, fingering the item he had saved from his house earlier that day.

"Of course I'm not sure," Deidara told him in a scoff, "But one can never be sure when they're going to run into ANBU corps. Never, un. And the chances of running into them are smaller if we're on the move, you know?"

"I guess I'll just trust what you say... But if you get us killed, I'll kill you,"

Deidara laughed lightly at that. "Go ahead and try; I'm ending up in hell when I die, and you're going to have trouble getting there, un~"

"What have you done that's bad enough to get you in hell for?" Sasori asked him with a blink of his eyes.

The blonde looked appalled by that, enough to see even in the dark. "What haven't I done to get in hell for, un?" he turned the question around easily, "You're not really going to make me list all my bad deeds, are you? The Deity would never accept me in heaven..."

Sasori shrugged. "I don't think you're that bad," he said simply, "Just unfortunate. None of the shit from before has been your fault, as has been mentioned."

Deidara looked at him seriously from the corner of his eye, "I think that the fact that all these bad things always seem to find me is enough to make it clear that I must have done something wrong..."

"You just want me to comfort you and prove you wrong, don't you?" the former puppeteer asked him, sighing.

"I wouldn't mind it, I suppose..." he replied with a slight grin.

Sasori pulled him close sort of easily, tugging him down and pressing a kiss on his cheek. "You're not going to hell, brat."

"With what logic?" Deidara asked him with a smirk, staying in the crooked position which he was in and breathing against Sasori's cheek as he spoke.

"I thought it was obvious..." Sasori groaned, "Because art is eternal, of course."

"...only that it's not..." the younger man replied, rolling his eyes lightly, "But thank you either way. I think I appreciate the effort, un."

"You'd better. That sounded like some awful attempt to hit on you."

"Let me pretend that it was one?" Deidara asked him with a slightly wavering voice and clear eyes.

Sasori was going to give him a negative answer, but never got the chance to do that, because Deidara decided that that was a good moment to press a kiss on his lips.

"I love you," the blonde murmured airily when they parted, and before Sasori got the chance to object, he continued by saying, "And like I told you before; I'm going to keep telling you that until you return it. Until you can stop 'trying'. Until we can stop pretending, un."

With that, they kept on walking, Deidara going ahead by a few steps and Sasori traipsing after me, more or less lost in thought.

Sometime soon, he promised himself, he would tell Deidara that he didn't want to keep pretending, because he wanted to try for real, be the love the blonde deserved.

"Hey, I think we've been walking in circles."

Deidara turned around, picking out his tongue, which shone in the moonlight. "I wasn't aware that you wanted to go somewhere, un."

Sometime soon.

Oh, the latter of Sasori's dreams is loosely based on a nightmare I had once. Though in that thing, the ghost was getting people close to me one by one until I was alone. D: And then it got me too. DD:

If you wanted to be really awesome and if you liked or hated or something, review?

See you next Sunday?