Disclaimer: check chap 1

"First love?"

Itachi's eyes focus on the wall on the side of his bed, recalled his memory of that day. His tone leaked a sadness when he said, "Her name was Izumi Uchiha. I knew her before we entered Ninja Academy at Konoha. As you may guess, everyone in my generation knew about my heritage. Where everyone would call me using honorifit's like people called my mother, she didn't. She called my name normally as a classmate would. Although, we are not particularly close like a best friend or something, we would chat when we have time. She was special to me because she treated me like I'm not different than other kids."

Deidara felt a pang of jealousy at that confession.

"We rarely met. I was graduated early from the academy at the age of 8. Then, I became Chunnin and ANBU. Our schedules and team were different. Frankly speaking, I never knew that I was in love with her," only honesty was detected in this confession, "until I lost her in front of my eyes."

Deidara asked softly, "What happened?"

"She was on a mission and my team was called as a back up. We arrived there on time and took down the enemies but I was too late when I realized one of the attack reached Izumi. She died on the spot."

Itachi has no expression as he let out. He looked as calm as he always did. But, somehow in his voice, in the tone he spoke, it gave him away about the feelings concealed inside. Deidara furrowed his eyebrows. Yes, on one side he felt uncomfortable to hear about Itachi's past love but he felt hurt as well to see his boyfriend in this state.

"I was not sure how I went home after that. Apparently, I was quite shaken and unresponsive despite the mission was successful. From what I heard from my parents, my teammate brought me home and explained the situation," Itachi closed his eyes. "At night… I was in my room when my mother came in. She sat beside me and hugged me, then she told me…

'It's not a crime to cry when you are in grief, Itachi.'

"I… shed my tears over her death that night. Weeping on my mother's lap. It hurts so much that my senses were dull and I didn't notice my father entered my room as well. I only realized his presence when he sat on my other side. A moment passed, I stopped crying because I know how my father perceived that kind of act. I apologized for crying and expected him to scold me or be ashamed of me but to my surprise… he hold my hand and he said,

'You don't have to face it alone, Itachi.'

"After that, my parents stayed beside me through the night. My parents knew how it affected me and suggested to me that it maybe will be good for me to be away from Konoha. Therefore, I accepted the recruitment to join Akatsuki after holding it on for some time."

To be honest, Deidara didn't know much about the Uchiha's parents. However, it was not hard to hear that Itachi's parents as understanding ones. One glance at Itachi (gentleman through and through) and his upbringing spoke volumes about his parents. Itachi's father may be a strict one but he cared for his son. His mother sounded like a lovable one. They were so supportive of their son, even suggested to—

Deidara blinked twice.

Wait, wait, "Join Akatsuki?" He frowned deeper. "Isn't that when you were 12?"

Itachi looked at Deidara and nodded, "Yes, it's true."

"It means this Izumi was…?"

"She was the same age with me."

The blonde jaw's dropped. At 12, Itachi had a first love already! Deidara didn't knew about others, but he barely had friends at that age. Well, he was more interested in his art than his peer. To some extent, Itachi was truly in another level. Inevitable. It was not everyday you would found someone as amazing as Itachi.

"What's wrong?" asked Itachi.

"Ah, no," Deidara shook his head, "I just remember that Nagato mentioned about you took your time to decide when they recruited you to join. After hearing your story, I assume you were indecisive because you would have to leave her should you join Akatsuki, right?"

Itachi nodded, "Indeed."

An awkward silence followed the confirmation. Deidara was not sure what to say. He never thought Itachi had a tragic love story. Well, he admitted he wasn't aware of his feelings towards this Izumi girl until it was too late. Who could blame him? He was 12 years old for Rikuddou's sake!

Since the mood was kinda gloomy when the topic was about the Uchiha girl, Deidara tried to lighten it by, "Your parents are cool, un."

Itachi blinked and smiled genuinely, "Yeah, they are. I couldn't be more proud to be born as their son."

"Lucky you," Deidara grinned and shoved the Uchiha playfully. He sighed, "I kinda envy coz in my home, it's only me and my dad."

"You don't have to be envy, my parents will be yours as well when we get married," said Itachi with a smile as he poked the blond's forehead gently. Deidara blushed at that statement, the Uchiha found it adorable. He didn't forget what Deidara just mentioned about his family. Itachi asked, "How about your mother? Or birth father?"

Birth father meant the male who was pregnant with the child in two males relationship. Male pregnancies were common due to the tradition to seal a womb on the male body to increase the population which was lost in the war before any shinobi village was founded.

"Like your grandmother, my birth father was passed away when he gave birth to me. I was raised by my dad. Well, in my childhood time, I was raised under Tsuchikage's care every time my dad has missions. So, I grew up together with his granddaughter."

"Granddaughter? I heard about her. She was talented kunoichi, isn't she?" Itachi inquired.

"Of course, she is. Kurotsuchi is my kouhai after all," Deidara exclaimed smugly.

"I see," Itachi was silent for a moment before as if considering something. He felt discomfort at the notion Deidara sounded close with a girl. He did considered to ignore it but a second later, he seemed to choose voiced out his curiosity, "Is she your ex-girlfriend?"

"What?!" the blond was shocked. "No! We never had a romantic relationship. She is like my younger sister. Hell, I never had that kind of relationship with anyone before!" He gasped when he realized he revealed the so-called secret.

Itachi's eyes widened briefly at the revelation, "Am I your first lover?"

"Kinda, un."

"Then, it makes the two of us," Itachi deduced with a smile.

Inwardly, the Uchiha felt relief to hear that. If the granddaughter of Tsuchikage's had a past (romantic) relationship with Deidara, it would put Itachi's position in danger. Should Kurotsuchi still attracted to Deidara, Tsuchikage would marry his granddaughter to his pupil and Itachi's intention to marry the said pupil will be denied. Not to mention, he was from another village despite his heritage.

"So, you view her as a sister?" He saw the blond nodded, then smiled gently, "I would love to meet her when I visit Iwagakure later."

"Huh?" Blue misty eyes looked at Itachi in confusion, "Are you planning to go to my village?"

"In the near future, yes," he replied. "Well, we will need to talk about the mission schedule with Yahiko and Konan before we do that. Which one do you want to go to first? Konoha or Iwa?"

"We?"

"Yes, us."

"For what?"

Itachi stared at Deidara, "To meet our parents." At Deidara's lack of response, the Uchiha continued, "We should send a letter to our parents beforehand. Well, my parents already know I will bring someone back to Konoha to introduce to them."

The blond was still unable to form any words or even processed the whole information. Did Itachi say what Deidara thought he said? To go to each other villages, that meant to be…

"Would you mind meeting my parents, Deidara?"

—000—

"Oi."

A voice came from Deidara's left hand yet he has not acknowledged the person. The blond merely stare at the wall in the lounge as he sat on the sofa.

"Oi!"

The voice became louder but still no response or whatsoever. Even after a hand waved in front of him. The owner of the voice was irritated and put his hand on Deidara's shoulder before shook it roughly.

"DEIDARA-CHAN!"

Still nothing.

Then, Deidara heard the one who shook him shouted, "GUYS, CODE BLUE! DEIDARA IS UNRESPONSIVE! HE COULD BE UNDER GENJUTSU, STROKE OR LOVESICK! CALL ITACHI BACK FROM HIS MISSION!"

"SHUT UP, HIDAN!" The said blond rose to his feet in embarrassment as he signed his fist to punched Hidan on the face. His own face was turned into a deep shade of red.

Hidan blocked it before Deidara's fist landed. Teasing grinned was curved on his lips, "Oh, hello there, Deidara-chan~!"

"What do you want, un?" Deidara pulled his hand back and sat again with irritation. Hidan sat beside him.

"Why? Can't we talk?" Hidan smirked. "Don't tell me Itachi forbid you to talk to another man? Is he possessive much~?"

"None of your business," he looked away to hide slightly red-tinted his cheeks.

In all honesty, the answer was no. He barely talk to Itachi after the night they talked about their past. There was an urgent mission and they went out as being called by their leader. When the mission is done, Itachi asked to have two weeks off for him and Deidara so could meet their parents. Yahiko agreed to reschedule their missions as long as they finished all the missions for the next two weeks. Hence, Deidara has not seen his boyfriend since the last time they talk. Deidara had his own share of missions as well and now he only waiting for Sasori to get ready before going to their mission places.

Hidan noted his friend's eyes looked unfocused. Like, he had many things in his head right now. "What's up, buddy? Trouble in paradise already?"

"I said it's none of your business, in," Deidara folded his hands on top of his chest. Raised an eyebrow, the older man said, "Come on, you can tell me, dude. You had this," he poked frowned brows of Deidara's, "I know for sure what it means."

Misty blue eyes glanced at Hidan who looked smiled amiably. The younger man knew Hidan was not all bad. Yes, he was teased almost all the time by Kakuzu's partner, but Hidan had his own rare moment when he would be a nice friend. Like, at this moment. Deidara sighed and closed his eyes. He was not in the mood to argue so he confided in.

"Itachi is planning to introduce me to his parents," he said softly.

"Isn't it a good thing?" Hidan smirked. "He's serious about you, then."

The blond scoffed, "Have you ever saw him make a joke in daily basis?"

Snickered, Hidan agreed, "Point taken." He turned his attention to Deidara, "What's wrong with the introduction thing?"

Those misty blue eyes stared at his lap, "I asked Itachi about his family and from what I heard, I guess his parents are great ones. Not because of their high social status but I know how they were so supportive to Itachi in his rainy days. Come to think about it, parents who raised a son as amazing as Itachi must not be average people. Itachi respects and loves his parents. I couldn't say the same about me and my dad."

Hidan stayed quiet as Deidara continued, "I can't help but compare his parents with mine. I rarely spent my time with my dad. He was always on missions throughout my childhood. That's why I spent all my time perfecting my art. I don't care about anything else," so I won't be reminded how lonely I was without my dad, was left unsaid. He was able to cope with his loneliness by lost himself in his art. He was constantly obsessed with his art. Then and now.

"So, what? Everyone is different." Hidan faintly unable to see the problem. "What's the problem?"

"I… Considering my own experience with my dad…." He sounded so reluctant but he was troubled for several days about this. Now is better than nothing at all, he thought. "I don't want to disappoint Itachi but I don't know how to talk to his parents…" He admitted lowly.

A stretched silence blanketed them. Personally, Hidan thought Deidara was still unfinished, but when nothing came afterwards, he blinked, "That's it?"

"What? What do you mean, 'that's it'?" Deidara turned his glare at Hidan.

"I don't get it why you are so depressed," Hidan shrugged. "They are human as well, right? What's so hard about talking to another human?"

"Don't you hear what I did just said?! "

"Yes, yes. I hear you just right. But, I think you are overthinking."

"No, I'm not!"

"Yes, you are!" Hidan pointed out, "Is Itachi ask you to be not yourself, to act in certain in front of his parents?"

"Well, no—"

"See? You don't have to torture your brain for this matter. Just be yourself. Itachi chose you himself. He knew his parents better than you. Have faith in his judgement."

Deidara was stunned. Hidan sighed, "You are thinking how to handle this insecurity is like how you need to create better clay dummy."

The blond was taken aback, "What?"

"Look, you can't expect you won't have any mistake in your relationship," Hidan put his palm on Deidara's shoulder. "Your relationship is not an art. You know how you treat your art, right? You think has to be perfect in every way you see it, correct? You can't use the same expectation within a relationship. When you create something with art, you did it yourself. But, in a relationship, you create a bond with someone. The problem is not how you could avoid any difficulty in the cost loss of yourself to meet his expectation. But, how you two works together to make it manageable. If you have insecurity, talk it out with Itachi. Don't do overthinking."

For a moment, Deidara looked at Hidan in incredulously since this kind of advice was so foreign to heard it from him. Since when Hidan could say anything that made sense? Yeah… it made sense…

"I'm not losing myself," the blond muttered. Even when he said it out loud, he knew what Hidan said was true.

"Yeah, right," Hidan huffed, "This depressing attitude is your normal behavior. Sure."

"Right back at you," Deidara raised an eyebrow. "You are many things but being wise is not your thing."

"OI! I'm wise like Jashin-sama, you just don't want to admit it!" Hidan scowled.

Deidara chuckled, "Keep telling yourself that, Hidan." Despite his teasing, he felt grateful that Hidan was taking him seriously. The (accidentally) insightful advice was unexpected but was not welcomed. He bumped their shoulder lightly as his silent thanks.

"You bet I am," the older man grinned and bumped back his shoulder. They shared a laugh before Sasori came and took Deidara to their mission.

—000—

Two weeks has passed without Itachi and Deidara even had the chance to see each other anymore due to their full mission schedules. The day Itachi gave their reports of their last mission before he and his boyfriend would take half of the month off to visit their respective villages.

In the morning, the Konan received the report from Itachi and Deidara for two different missions. She smiled at the couple, "Good luck, you two."

"Thank you, Konan," Itachi bow politely. "We're leaving now. See you later."

"Bye, Konan," Deidara waved at the woman before followed Itachi went out. Itachi told Deidara that he has sent a letter to his parents at Konohagakure. Deidara also admitted that he sent his letter to Tsuchikage since his master was the one who knew where his father had a mission.

Journey to Konoha was a short one because Akatsuki's headquarters in Amegakure was quite close to there. They were departed at morning and around late afternoon they arrived at the gate of Itachi's village. When misty eyes caught the giant green gate, his heart raced wildly at the foreign anxiety. He followed Itachi to walked towards the gate but he stopped few steps behind his boyfriend.

Itachi noticed the lack of steps so he turned around to the blond. "Deidara?" He stepped closer to him. "Are you alright?"

Misty blue eyes looked at onyx ones before set at the green gate again. His conversation with Hidan flashed in his mind. It was not his intention to postponed his plan for discussing his anxiety with Itachi. They were truly was not see each other during the last two weeks with missions. He was nervous during their journey to here so he wanted to organize his emotion first. But, now… they were stepping away from Itachi's home. Well, they were in front of Konoha's gate.

Behind that gate, there was a home where Itachi was born, grew up as a prodigy, and rested when he was not on duty from Akatsuki. There was where Itachi's family resided. He remembered how fond of Itachi was when the Uchiha talked about his family. In addition, Obito emphasized that Uchiha clan was affected easily by love so Deidara truly didn't want to disappoint Itachi. He knew he was not an ideal son-in-law material. He used to care about his art only. He never care about people's opinion as long as they don't mock his art. But… today…

It was different.

Deidara could hear Hidan's nagging that he should talk about this to Itachi and not overthinking. The blonde himself didn't know why Itachi's family's opinion of him mattered so much. He could guess why he felt this way but had no evidence to proof it since he never in this situation before all his life.

"Itachi," he looked at the taller man's eyes. He felt at ease to see he had the attention of Itachi but the apprehension was still there as well.

"If your parents doesn't like me…" It tasted bad in his mouth as his worded his anxiety, "If they don't approve me to be your husband…" He didn't know if he want to know the answer or not but he was curious.

"What will you do?"

Thanks for reading! Please let me know what do you think!

a.abchohan: ah, yes, thank you. please stay healthy as well :) I'm well now but I'm afraid I will not update this story for the next two months (oct-nov). There will be fanfiction awards in my country and I will be one of the judges so I'll be busy during oct-nov. I think I will update after the event is over. So, Hope you still reading this story later!

feriyen: yes, what do you to think?