Sasori, Kakuzu and Konan were talking amiably as Deidara finally made his way over. He greeted everyone once again, and sat down on the sofa next to Sasori with heavy thud.

"You ok there?" Sasori said, a little sarcastically.

"Of course, un! Whenever am I not?" He grinned at the redhead. Deidara was in a great mood.

They carried out talking with the others until Hidan suggested playing beer pong; everyone else got up. Sasori was about to follow, when he saw Deidara settle down more into the seat. He seemed like he wanted to catch the redhead before the joined the rest of the guys. Sasori complied, sitting back in the sofa and looking at the blond expectantly. He was still taken aback at how attractive he found the younger man.

Deidara scooted just a fraction closer to Sasori. "You having a good time?"

Sasori took a long draw of his drink; he was on his second one now. "Yeah." He narrowed his eyes at the blond, but his lips twitched in the ghost of a smile. "…Was it always your plan for us to stay over here?"

Deidara pursed his lips together, putting his face closer to Sasori's. He raised his own cup, and clinked it gently against Sasori's own. "Perhaps, un."

"You're terrible."

"Says you. What happened to you being my responsible driver, un?" Deidara teased. His leg shifted, his knee lightly touching against Sasori's now as he twisted to face the redhead properly.

"Whoa hold on, I thought you were fine with this-" Sasori began, indignant. Deidara stopped his spiel with a finger to his lips, applying a stroke of pressure. Sasori paused in his speech suddenly, as if the words evaporated in his throat.

"I'm just messing with you, un…You had better get used to that." He spoke in delicate tone, implied meaning oozing out his words. Finger tracing lightly against Sasori's top lip, he dropped his tone even lower. "…I want to see you let go, un."

Sasori's body felt rooted to the spot. Although party-goers were all around them in the room, he and Deidara could have been completely alone in that moment. He tried to swallow.
Their faces were close; a rush of emotion thundered through Sasori's core.

Sasori gripped onto the back of Deidara's hand, and pulled it slowly down so the finger tips caressed against his own neck. Deidara watched in delight as his hand came to a stop at the redhead's collar bone. In this action, their eyes never broke apart.

For the blond, the action felt incredibly sensual.
The redhead leaned forwards, his lips mere inches away from Deidara's.

"So this is how you spend your time, huh?" A ringing voice pierced the moment from above.

Immediately, Deidara jolted backwards. He pulled his hand away from Sasori's chest quickly and stood up, getting off of the sofa.
Sasori had adrenaline coursing through his body as he reconciled what had just happened. His mind felt strangely blank. He stood up to join the blond's conversation with the man who had (rudely, in Sasori's opinion) interrupted their moment.

When he got to his feet, Deidara gently put an arm around Sasori's lower back.

"Sasori, this is Obito; he owns the Orange Swirl cafe, un." He glanced sideways at the redhead. "He's my friend I was telling you about earlier." The blond said knowingly to Sasori.

Obito held a hand out to Sasori; immediately the redhead realised this guy was older too, more similar in age to himself. He felt a firmness in Obito's grip.

"Nice to meet you. Although I guess you might have heard about me already." Obito said carefully. He seemed to quickly whip his eyes over Sasori in scrutiny. Sasori picked up on it, although Obito quickly moved on, until his onyx black eyes rested on Deidara once again.

Deidara looked as if he was trying to calculate what to say to the other man. The redhead was then hit with the swift realisation that Obito's breakup that Deidara alluded to earlier might have been between he and the blond himself. Sasori noticed that Obito was the man in the photograph, back at Deidara's apartment, who had his arm around the blond.

All of a sudden feeling like a spare part, Sasori excused himself from the conversation, claiming to be after another drink. In order to try and conceal his awkwardness, he offered to fetch all three of them drinks.

He muttered a little to himself as he poured the measures, swearing as he managed to tip gin all over the counter.

"Language like that, and you'll get on just fine with Hidan." A calm voice aimed to soothe the redhead. Itachi came into the kitchen, helping the redhead clean up. He then poured out the gin into Deidara's cup where Sasori had left the bottle.

Sasori didn't say anything back. His head was reeling a little from all that had happened in the last few minutes.

Itachi carried on pouring the drinks, picking up from where Sasori left off. He handed the redhead his own drink, his expression thoughtful. "…You know, you coming here with Deidara says a lot."

At Itachi's helpfulness, Sasori's frown dislodged slightly, but he didn't drop his wary gaze, not knowing what to make of what Itachi was saying.
He leant against the fridge, raising an eyebrow at the younger man. "That so?"

Itachi nodded, resting against the kitchen counter opposite Sasori.
"Yes. I think it would be quite intimidating walking into a room of people you don't know, in this scenario."

The redhead said nothing, but took a sip of his drink.
"So I admire your actions; you must like Deidara a lot." Itachi spoke with warmth in his voice.

Sasori felt his shoulders relax. He exhaled the words "Uh…yeah, I guess so." He smiled a little at the raven haired man.
Itachi returned a brief smile himself. Immediately, Sasori felt better about speaking to the raven haired man.
The music around them was a good vibe, it set an ambient tone in the flat.

"In that case; let me give you some information." Itachi's intense expression was back, but now Sasori knew he spoke out of care for a friend. The redhead realised he must have misjudged his more internal nature earlier.

"That guy over there-" He nudged his drink in the direction of the blond and the taller man. "Is my cousin, Obito. He…has a bit of a 'thing' for Deidara."

"Your cousin?" Sasori queried. This was becoming complicated.

"Yes. A lot us got our jobs through me being related to him. But." He paused, taking a sip of his drink. "I don't agree with everything he does." Itachi reasoned.

"To tell you the truth; it's embarrassing the way he acts with Deidara." The raven haired man continued, glancing over his shoulder at the blond and his cousin. "You'll see what I mean. They haven't ever dated, but he likes Deidara to give him attention…I think he gets off on it a little. His last girlfriend recently broke up with him, and he's been on Deidara's case ever since."

The redhead rubbed the back of his neck. What was he getting himself into…

Still.
He glanced over at Deidara, still talking to Obito. He felt no more feelings of wavering. If anything, it made him want to go over to him again, if this guy was indeed a bother to him.

"I see…" Sasori muttered, words trailing away.
Itachi straightened up, patting Sasori's upper forearm. "I just thought you should know. Obito and I aren't super close, but I keep an eye on him."

"Uh…Appreciate that. Thanks." Sasori took one of the drinks from Itachi, and walked back over to the people they were just talking about with him.

"Finally!" Obito exclaimed, taking the gin from his cousin. "I hope you aren't this slow at serving our customers." He jibed at his cousin, but there was playfulness in his eyes.
Itachi just sipped his own drink, not in the slightest bit fazed.

"Anyway; I was saying, we should definitely check it out." Obito continued his conversation. He turned to look at Sasori. "There's this retro bar that has just opened up in the city centre. It's a good vibe, nice place to escape."

"Sounds interesting." Sasori replied, not sure what to make of the 'escape' comment.

"I'll still trash your ass at air hockey, Dei." Obito smirked at the blond. He had a handsome face, but Sasori couldn't help but feel his skin crawl a little at the tone of his voice.

Deidara was unbothered; he just gulped his own drink. "Sure. It sounds fun, anyway, un." The blond eventually threw out.

By now, the music began to pick up.

"So…how about next weekend?" Obito asked their group. As he spoke, to their left a roar of the crowd watching the beer pong broke through their conversation.
Obito looked frustrated that no-one was listening to him anymore. He scowled as Deidara took Sasori's arm and walked over to the beer pong table.

"You any good, un?" The blond nudged his head in the direction of the table. They hung back a little bit, as the others finished their game. Hidan was getting animated; he was shirtless with sticky red liquid down his front. Sasori could only imagine some kind of forfeit rule was at play.

At the question, Sasori rolled his eyes, but did so with a smirk. "I guess I'm alright." He replied cordially. He felt like he was back at college.

Deidara raised his own eyebrows at the redhead. He bared his teeth slightly. "Oh ho; now I want to take you on, un." He nudged his hip against Sasori. "We should have some kind of reward for the winner, un."

Sasori blinked, taking a draw of his gin, thoughts rushing through his head. He didn't feel like disgracing himself. "…What did you have in mind?" He asked cautiously.

Deidara was still standing close. He looked back at the redhead slyly. "I'll think of something, un."

Before long, they were in the thick of the game of beer pong. Between them, they had shouted out a variety of forfeit rules for each other - Deidara, Hidan, Itachi, Kakuzu and Obito on one team; Sasori, Kisame, Konan, Pein and another person he met that night called Zetsu on the other.

"Sasori, you better nail this next one!" Kisame exclaimed. He had his shirt off, wearing one of Konan's bras. Konan had his own jersey on. Their forfeits were to gradually increase the number of each other's clothes they had to wear.

"Ooooh you guys are so fucked." Hidan stuck his tongue at them from the other side of the table.

"Fuck I can't get anymore naked." Pein said, wearing only his boxers. "At least not right now anyway-" he dropped his voice low, so only Konan heard him. She smirked right back at him.

Pein and Zetsu had to strip a piece of clothing every time the opposing team won a point. Zetsu was wearing boxer shorts that had images of topical fruit dotted around them, looking extremely sheepish at showing them off.

The redhead had a fervent expression as he lined up his shot. Sasori's own forfeit was to drink a disgusting of mixture of the opposing team's choice each time they won a point, as well as the customary beer in the cup. He was starting to feel very tipsy.

He scowled; this was like beer pong on acid.
With that energy powering him through, he threw the ball - one, two bounces and then - bam! It landed smack in the middle of the cup. He felt a rise of glee as the others celebrated around him, shouting incoherently; Kisame actually picked him up briefly.

"Yess! We're on the upside now!" Kisame shouted, punch-drunk.
Everyone was getting rowdier as the night wore on.

Before long, Deidara was down to just his trousers; boots, jacket and shirt discarded. He and Obito got the stripping forfeit this time around. Obito was also topless, his hair tousled.

Hidan had his head against the wall, reeling, whereas Itachi was fairing reasonably well drinking the forfeit shots. Rather than swapping clothes with anyone in particular in their team, Kakuzu had to wear each item of discarded clothes. Deidara's leather jacket was so much smaller than his frame he had it tied around his neck at the arms like a cape.

Deidara howled with laughter as the banker's serious nature ebbed away. He was barking increasingly rowdy instructions at his team.

"Come on, I need to win my pride back, you cretins!" He directed at Obito and Deidara. "This is the last shot!"

Obito stepped up to take his shot. Sasori felt his eyes on him for a moment, until Obito wrapped an arm around Deidara's shoulder and leaned torso into the blond's back. "Where shall I aim, Dei?" His voiced slurred just a fraction.

Sasori inhaled sharply, trying to not let what was happening in front of him bother him too much.
After all, it's not like he and Deidara were dating.
But the redhead could not deny the sight of Obito's hands on the blond's skin irked him immensely. He also considered that it was definitely…off. He was sure it wasn't cool to be all over someone who worked under you like this.

Deidara shook off Obito after a moment, but told him to aim right below the cup at the centre. He stepped forward, and threw the ping-pong ball. It landed with a satisfying plop in the final cup for the opposite team.

Obito showboated as the other team erupted loudly. Well, everyone apart from Hidan, who was now slumped on the sofa. Kakuzu went over to check on him, making sure he wasn't about to puke. Once he was satisfied, he sat next to Hidan on the sofa, patting his head awkwardly.

Kisame and Zetsu chatted shit back at Deidara's team as everyone milled around, bouncing off each other's energy.

Sasori was surprised when Deidara came right over to him after the game. He saw in his peripheral vision Obito speaking to Itachi.

"I do hope you're not a sore loser, un." The blond called out. The redhead's brain was beginning to feel very fuzzy, but could still get butterflies from the words the blond directed at him.

Deidara now gently wrapped his palms around the back of Sasori's neck. Where Sasori's shirt collar had been opened up, he could touch the redhead's bare skin with his fingers.

The redhead swayed slightly at the motion; his own hands reached out to hold onto Deidara's waist for balance. Deidara leant into the motion. His pupils were wide, his being exhilarated.

"Mmm-mmm." Sasori muttered. "I'm a master of…e-emotions." The redhead hiccoughed slightly, surprised at the sudden contact. His own skin felt warm; he'd long taken off his own jumper as well as unbuttoning his shirt.

Deidara moved his head closer to Sasori. "A master, eh?" He repeated. The tension that he felt with the redhead earlier began to build again. Deidara looked over his shoulder, most of his friends were occupied currently, still shooting the shit about the game. He grabbed Sasori's wrist and pulled him to follow.

Sasori didn't question it; the blond knew this apartment's layout better than he did. And he was swept up in the rancour of the evening - it was like Deidara sparked an energy within him.
Deidara wrenched the front door open and they slipped out the flat.

The two men went down one flight of stairs and then pushed through another door; they came crashing out onto a small flat roof. The air was welcoming, a cool balm to their warm skin.

The blond was giddy with anticipation. He hoped Sasori felt the same.

Deidara's hand was still on the redhead's wrist. In a fluid motion, he pulled Sasori close to him and kissed him. His lips moved against the redhead's with an ardent hunger. The blond knew it had begun to build from the moment he began flirting with him in the cafe.

What he hadn't been certain of is whether Sasori would respond with similar fervour.
He got his answer immediately; the redhead kissed him back avidly, his usual reserved countenance broken down by the evening's antics. Deidara's lips felt electric against his own, a rising feeling of desire flowing through his body.
Sasori wrapped an arm around Deidara's back, as his other hand moved to slip through the blond's hair whilst they kissed. Deidara got a rush of ecstasy as he tasted the redhead, breathing in his body. He moaned a little, as his senses were full of Sasori.

They broke apart, both men a little breathless.
Sasori didn't know what to say, but felt his chest rise and fall, heart hammering beneath he surface.

Deidara broke the silence with a playful observation. "…I guess that can be my prize for winning, un…" He traced a finger lightly against the redhead's cheek. "… Master." He quipped at Sasori, lips twitching, remembering the redhead's statement from earlier.

Sasori stared back at him, bemused.
The night had been one to remember for sure.

•••