The secondary school was big. VERY big. Deidara stood in shock at the size of it.
"Okay, now this is just… weird, yeah…" He trailed off as he stepped forwards towards the school, planning on finding the head's office soon. He didn't need to look far. At the end of the corridor, there was a large plaque, reading – "Tsunade – Headmistress". He stepped forwards, and rapped on the door uncertainly before he head a muffled "Come in." from the inside of the room. He peeked through the door, biting his lip.
"Ah. Come in. You must be Deidara." She smiled at his shocked expression. "Your parents rang." Deidara rolled his eyes, and then blinked lazily.
"I don't know where to go, yeah." He muttered. Tsunade smiled.
"I don't expect you to. I'll see you to your form class – you are in… 11R. I'm sure you'll take to someone in there." Deidara grinned as he took the sheet that she handed to him, and then walked out of the door, Tsunade quickly stepping in front of him and walking up the corridor, then turning to go up a staircase. Deidara followed up three more staircases and two more corridors until he finally got to his form room. There were several people standing outside the door, yawning and talking idly amongst themselves. They focused their attention on him for a moment, and then went back to their friends. Deidara leant against the wall, looking at the bland white ceiling. Then someone poked him in the arm. He turned, and blinked lazily up at the strangely blue skinned and shark-like teen in front of him.
"Kisame. You?" He grunted. He looked like he wanted Deidara to be threatened – but of course, he didn't know that.
"Mmm. Deidara. Nice to meet you, yeah." He drawled lazily. Kisame looked at him funnily, then looked around at a teen who had just appeared beside him. He had onyx eyes, and black hair with a brown tinge to it. His fingernails, Deidara noticed, were painted lilac. Kisame put a somewhat protective arm around his shoulders, and gave Deidara a glare that said clearly, 'hands-off-he's-mine'. Deidara gave him a bland look, 'I-would'nt-touch-him-anyway'. Kisame looked down his nose at Deidara, but Itachi had a slightly more friendly approach.
"I'm Itachi. Excuse Kisame – he's friendly really. He's like a big shark with a little lamb inside." He cooed, poking Kisame in the ribs. Kisame muttered something under his breath, and Itachi punched him hard in the arm.
"You're a vegetarian. You do not eat lamb."
"I am not a vegetarian."
"I just said you were. So shut it." Itachi smiled at Deidara, who was looking bewildered. "We're like this mostly. Come sit with us, if you like." Kisame gave Deidara a dirty look, which Deidara returned. Kisame raised his eyebrows in shock, and then returned to his sharkish expression. Deidara heard a door slam and turned his head in interest, and a scowling teen, with blue hair and eyes, was stomping down the corridor. He held out a hand to Itachi, who slapped it in a high-five greeting. The teen turned his head in interest towards Deidara, who was just staring at him with his one visible eye.
"Hey, a newbie. I'm Sasori."
"Deidara." He drawled. He was getting rather bored of repeating his name to everyone
"Say, Deidara, how do you not get annoyed with that hair over your right eye? Doesn't seeing gold all the time annoy you to no end?" Deidara knew that this Sasori was mocking him. Deidara regarded him with as blank a look as he could.
"That, Sasori, is none of your business, yeah." He turned away from the group, and opened up his time-table. He almost squealed in delight, but didn't. ART was printed in most of the boxes. IT, Drama, Maths, English and –shudder- Science on a Thursday… he now hated Thursdays. Bad Thursdays with no art. Deidara grimaced, and felt like stabbing his timetable. He ran it over a few more times, and then shoved it into his pocket. The bell went almost as soon as he had withdrawn his hand from his large pocket. The doors were unlocked by Tsunade, and Deidara made his way to the back of the classroom, nestling into the corner, his bag on his desk. He pulled out a sheet of paper, and then a pencil from the front pocket. He began to sketch. First a head, then a body, then clothes, then a pair of wings, stretching the span of the page . He then drew in hair, wispy and long, billowing over one eye and part of her face. It was an angel, falling backwards, the wings stretching wide then curling in on themselves, cocooning her arms. He smiled to himself at his quick sketch, then looked up, as he felt eyes on him. A blonde girl with four bunches and a fishnet collar was gawping at him, then at his drawing. She had a short purple dress on, and was sitting just in front of him. She had to turn her head before she could speak, and the whole class stood up in front of the snake-like teacher. Deidara copied the rest of the class, shoving the angel into his pocket with a loud 'schrunch' of paper. The blonde girl turned and gawped at him, like he was wasting a perfectly good bit of artwork. He shrugged it off and sat down with the rest of the class. The snake-like teacher took registration, then dismissed the class. Deidara cackled to himself, knawing on his knuckles excitedly. The blonde girl came up behind him.
"Hi, I'm Temari. You're a good artist." Deidara was taken aback by the quick, but loyal praise. But only momentarily.
"I'm Deidara, yeah? Pleased to meet you." Temari squealed.
"I knew it! You're really polite, compared to that PIG Sasori."
"What do you know?"
"That you're politer than him."
"Oh. I have art next. You?"
"Art. Although, I only have it once a week." Deidara huffed slightly. Temari flinched at the huff, and continued quickly. "Although, my brother Gaara does Art quite a lot. He's a sculpting maniac – he loves to use wet sand to make sculptures… don't know why, though. He's rather odd, my brother."
"Playdoh is better, yeah." Deidara reached into his pocket, and pulled out some white playdoh. He squished it into his fingers, and moulded it quickly into a small bird shape. He pouted.
"Mmm… I don't have any more."
Deidara did not know what to think of his art teacher. Kakashi was one minute reading his perverted book, then he was flitting around the room and destroying people's egos, and their work. Deidara just sat and fiddled with his playdoh, bored. His work was sitting infront of him, finished – his angel picture, refined with details such as shading and the sky behind her. A bird was flying beside her. A hawk. He didn't know why he put the hawk there, but it was. So he was leaning on his chair, bored out of his mind while Temari tried to copy his art and making it look different. But failing. Kakashi slid up behind Deidara, peeking over his shoulder.
"Ahh. We have an artist." Deidara fell off his chair in surprise. He looked at the squished playdoh in his hands, then glared at Kakashi as he held up the drawing to this class. Sasori was looking from across the room in interest, and Deidara pointedly looked away from him. He was not going to hang out with people who mocked him.
At break, Deidara was surrounded by girls, most of whom were two or three years below himself and Temari. Temari had latched herself to his arm, and he was staring into outer space. When he felt his hair over his right eye twitch, and placed his hand to the chunk of hair. Temari flinched, drawing her hand away from his face. Deidara shook her off his arm, and began walking to his next lesson – English. Apparently the teacher was a weedy type guy, but he'd go bonkers if you didn't do homework.
English was indeed uneventful. Iruka just sat at the front of class and let the class do whatever the hell they wanted. He appeared to be daydreaming, and he was smiling. Deidara observed this carefully, and pulled out a pad of paper, and began to sketch a bird, wings open and a fish hanging from its claws. He carefully sketched in the water around them, and then pulled out his pencilcase, that was full of all kinds of colours, from skin tones to sky-tones. He coloured in the background first before moving on to the bird and the fish. He looked at it, then pulled out a large folder. He flicked through his artwork until he found a blank slot, and slid in his drawing. He put away the folder, and leant his head on his hands lazily, thinking of absolutely nothing. The rest of the lesson passed uneventfully.
After IT, at lunch, Deidara was sitting alone and munching on a ham sandwich. He leant back against the tree he was sitting against, closing his eyes and letting the sandwhihc digest. He was never one for eating much. He felt someone sit next to him, but didn't bother to open his eyes to check. He slid his left hand beneath his hair, just to make sure that it wasn't some idiot who wanted to see beneath the lock of hair. He heard a dry chuckle and turned his head, opening one eye. It was Sasori sitting next to him.
"Ahh, you found out my plan before I could test it." Sasori smirked at Deidara who just leant back against the tree and closed his eyes again, his hand still underneath the lock of hair.
"So you don't trust me?" Sasori drawled, inching closer to Deidara. He got silence in return. He huffed, and rolled his eyes, standing up.
"I guess not." Deidara's hand slipped to his side as Sasori walked away. He chuckled quietly to himself, and then heard the bell for the end of lunch. He got up, and made his way to his form room, where the snake-like teacher was standing at the front desk and waiting for his students. Deidara was the first one in. He nestled into the corner as everyone came flooding in. Temari sat next to him, and snuggled against his arm again. Deidara didn't bother to tell her that she was in deep shit if she tried to push away the hair in front of his eye again – he guessed that she wouldn't try. He yawned boredly, standing up as registration finished. Art again.
Kakashi was sitting at the front of the class and droning on about tone. He didn't seem to have noticed that he had been repeating the same thing for over 3 minutes. Deidara was getting rather bored of that.
"You've hammered it into our brains already, yeah! Just get on with it, yeah!" He yelled from the back of the class. Kakashi stopped droning on, and realized that he had been saying the same thing. He grinned, and rubbed the back of his head.
"Eheheh… Sorry." He handed out worksheets, and Deidara sat and looked at it in disdain.
"I know all of this stuff!" He muttered, filling in the worksheet in illegible, scruffy handwriting. Someone he hadn't seen before slid up a bench to sit next to him. He wore all black, had cherry red spikey hair, and had dark rings around his sea-foam green eyes. He looked at Deidara, then at Deidara's worksheet, which was full, and then at his own, which was still blank. Deidara grinned, and handed his worksheet to the red head, who hurriedly copied the answers, squinting to identify each letter. Deidara stifled chuckles by biting his lip. The sea foam green eyes regarded Deidara blankly for a moment, then returned to attempt deciphering the last answer. Deidara decided that he liked the red head.
The end of school, and Deidara was walking with hands in his pockets, when he heard someone yelling, then a loud 'thud' of contact with something. It was coming from the halls of the Gymnasium. He frowned, and walked towards the sound. As he came closer, he heard sobbing and coughing, then more thudding. He finally saw the scene – Itachi, Kisame and Sasori were crowded around a small, shivering, sobbing and coughing lump, kicking it severely. Deidara ran forwards, and pushed the all away from the shivering lump.
"Hey, lay off, yeah! Stupid assholes, move or I'll kick your fucking asses!" The three were so shocked by the threat in Deidara's voice that they actually ran. Deidara crouched beside the lump, which was beginning to curl and reveal a mop of blonde hair. The blonde's tanned hands moved to wipe the tears away, and he managed a shuddering gasp of air, his blue eyes snapping open.
"Thank… you…" Gasped the blonde. Deidara smiled, and stood up, holding out a hand. The blonde below him took it, stumbling to his feet. Deidara supported him with one arm under his armpit, and helped him limp along.
Deidara sat the boy on the kitchen counter at his house, jumping onto a chair to reach the first aid kit. (Hey, the cabinets are high up, alright.)
"Mm… Whats your name, kid, yeah?"
"N-Naruto… What about you?"
"Mmm. Cool name."
"What's your name?"
"I'm not important, I need to get your cuts cleaned up."
"What is your name?"
"I'm not important."
This went on for another few minutes until Naruto gave up, and conversation ceased. Deidara finished putting plasters on the cuts and rubbing ointment into the bad bruising, and then he handed Naruto a coke from the fridge. He took it, and cranked it open, downing it quickly. Deidara was surprised he didn't gag on the fizzy sweet syrup-like liquid. Naruto grinned happily, handing Deidara the empty can.
"Thanks." Deidara nodded, and then looked outside. It was pitch black – obviously later.
"You better stay here, yeah. D'you want to ring anyone?" Naruto nodded vigourously, and looked around the phone, as did Deidara. He saw it on the counter, and picked up the cordless thing, tossing it to Naruto who fumbled with it. He finally frantically dialled a number, and then paused, holding it to his ear.
"Hey, 'Suke!" He grinned cheerily into the phone. Deidara decided to sit and watch Naruto on the phone.
"I'm at this guy's house – he saved me from your brother and two of his friends… thankfully Venus wasn't there." There was a long string of yelling from the other end. Naruto winced.
"Hey, I'm here because he wanted to help me out… He wont tell me… I've tried… I've tried… I taught you what you know and I've tried everything." The conversation ended there, as the other person had hung up.
"Stupid boyfriend…" Muttered Naruto. Deidara blinked.
"You're gay?"
"Umm… yeah…" Naruto suddenly looked fearful, and winced at the blank look that Deidara gave him.
"Cool." Naruto was shocked.
"What… You accept that?" Deidara rose a perfectly formed, feminine eyebrow.
"Yeah. You just don't look it, that's all. Okay, maybe a little feminine, but that has nothing to do with sexuality." Deidara shrugged. "I have a fouton through here, or your boyfriend can come collect you. Or whatever, I really don't care, yeah…" Deidara stomped down the hallway, and into his bedroom. He heard Naruto's light footsteps behind him. He went into the small dingy room with his bed, and dragged out a fouton from underneath it. He pushed it into his room, and then closed his door, hurriedly getting changed into his pyjamas.
"Get to sleep, Naruto. I'll wake you up in the morning."
The morning came, and Deidara's alarm went off at 7:30 like it usually did. He stood up, and went into his room, finding a change of clothes, changing into them, and then poking Naruto with the toe of his trainers.
"Up. My mom will freak if she sees you here, yeah, so we have to move before 8. We can hang around the school grounds, yeah?" Naruto groaned, sitting up and yawning widely. He stood up, and stretched quickly.
"Breakfast?" He mumbled. Deidara shooed him into the kitchen, and put some pieces of toast in the toaster. He sat on the kitchen counter and watched as Naruto punched in a number sleepily, the same one as yesterday. He held the receiver to his ear, and yawned. He mumbled something through his yawn, which he repeated again.
"Morning, Sasuke… I'm up this early because this guy's mom will freak if I'm here… I dunno." He looked up at Deidara. "Hey, why will your mom freak out?"
Deidara blinked. "Mmm… Because I'm year 11 and you are year 9. We are both guys. My mom has enough dealing with the fact that I look like a girl. She may get the wrong idea."
"Did you hear all that?... Okay. Be at school earlier? I know you are, but you sound like you just got up… Oh. Right." Deidara zoned out at this point, as the toast popped out of the toaster. He grabbed the four pieces, and put them on a plate, were he spread them with butter. He passed on three to Naruto, and began munching on one. Naruto said bye to Sasuke, and began to stuff his face hungrily. At this point, Deidara heard the bedroom door click.
"We're leaving, Naruto."
The two stood at the school gates, panting heavily after running from the apartment blocks.
"Oh… god… yeah… I'm so… unfit…" Gasped Deidara, clutching his side, where a stitch had began. A raven haired boy appeared out of the school building, and Naruto managed to get enough stamina to run all the way towards him and glomp him. There was a muffled yell as they hit the ground, then giggles that Deidara could hear from the school gates. He rolled his eyes, and walked towards the school building.
"Hey, Naruto. Just tell me if they bother you again and I'll blow them to the other side of this city." He muttered as he passed the two, who were giggling in a heap on the ground.
Sasori sat cross legged outside the classroom door, frowning.
Why did we run from him? He wouldn't hurt us, I could tell… but he was just so threatening… Why is the only thing I can think about is Deidara? Stupid, fit-to-cross-dress blonde… I hate him. No I don't. He's too cute to be true… WHY THE FUCK AM I THINKING THIS? Probably because he looks to utterly shaggable… Oh, Jesus. I hate my HORMONAL BRAIN! Not Deidara. Luff is Deidara. Oh, brilliant. I'm stuck with these thoughts… HORMONES SUCK!
At this point Deidara walked down the corridor, and sat with his back to Sasori, hand over his hair. Sasori couldn't help himself. He crawled over to where Deidara was sitting, and wrapped his arms around his neck, putting his cheek next to Deidara's. He felt the boy beneath him stiffen with shock. And when the shock wore away, he was still stiff.
"Get. Off. Me." Deidara hissed. Sasori flinched, and withdrew. He felt like he could cry.
"You're so cold." Snarled Sasori, threateningly despite his sadness.
Lunch, and Deidara was drawing. He had escaped Temari and her group of rabid year 9 and 10 friends. He was drawing himself, reaching for a heart, crawling in blood, and his artwork hovering around him. He shoved it into his folder at the sight of Itachi, Kisame and Sasori.
Dumb thugs. The inner Deidara snarled, jumping up and down and strangling small dolls of the trio. Itachi crouched down in front of Deidara, an evil smile on his face.
"Hello, Deidara."
"Hello, Itachi."
"Have you ever been raped?"
"No, and I don't plan on it, yeah."
"Well how about we rape you and reverse your plans?"
"Touch me, and I will hurt you." Itachi's fingers traced Deidara's mouth. Deidara's mouth opened, and clamped down on Itachi's fingers. He tasted metallic blood in his mouth. He released Itachi's fingers, spat it out, and ran. Last lesson was IT – and thankfully, Sasori was the only one in this class. Data graphs were boring, but it took Deidara's mind off the events. As he left the classroom, he could sense Sasori following him. He left the school, and yet he was still being followed. After five minutes, he turned around and confronted Sasori.
"Can you fucking leave me alone, yeah?" Deidara yelled, his dark beige eyes furious. Sasori kept on walking, until he was almost nose to nose with Deidara. His hand raised, and it slid beneath Deidara's hair, caressing the skin beneath it. Deidara gripped Sasori's arm, and pulled it down back to his side. He stalked off, his skin tingling where he had been touched.
Deidara sat beneath his bed covers, hugging his knees. The phone rang, and Deidara faintly heard his mother call his name. He crawled from his bed, and stalked down the hall in a moody hormonal teenager fashion, taking the phone from his mother, and stalking back to his room.
"Mm?" He murmured into the phone, flopping down onto a beanbag.
"Hey, person who saved me!"
"Hey, Naruto."
"What is your name anyway?"
"Call me Deidara, yeah."
"So that's your name?"
"Mm."
"Okay. I was just ringing to thank you again, and also because I was wondering if you would like to come with me, Sasuke and some other guys to the cinema? We would be watching whatever is on. There'll be a vote."
"Sure. When?"
"Come over to Sasuke's house now?"
"I'll meet you at the cinema, yeah?"
"Sure."
"Seeya, yeah?"
"See yoooou." Deidara hung up, then pulled out his hair and did it up again, but lower, at the base of his skull instead of at the top. He scrounged through his heaps of artwork, found a twenty pound note, and left the apartment for the cinema.
Deidara sat outside the cinema, and it was only a few minutes until he could see Naruto and the raven-haired boy (who he assumed was Sasuke) and two other boys, probably in the same class as the two. Deidara grinned, and ruffled Naruto hair as he came close.
"Hey, Naruto." He felt the glare from Sasuke and the shocked looks from the other two boys, who both wore big grey coats. One had sunglasses, and the other had red marks on his cheeks.
"Errm, yeah, Deidara, this is Shino, Kiba and Sasuke." Deidara winked at Sasuke, and raised a hand in greeting to Shino and Kiba. Sasuke continued to glare at Deidara, suspicious of any other activity besides friendship between Deidara and Naruto. Deidara chose to ignore this, and motioned for them to go inside.
After a long debate, they decided to watch Kinky Boots, just for a laugh. They spent ages in the queue to get popcorn, coke and chocolate. They bought three bags of popcorn, five drinks (all large) and chocolate. Deidara knew he would be hyped by the end of the movie.
AN/ Oh my god, that took so long x-x; I'll get on with chapter two now – enjoy This one for now. And Sasori is right – Luff is Deidara. By the way, you don't like the pairings, then tough. They are sticking.