Epilogue:

They were all sat at Home, the fire crackling softly in the warmly lit living room. They'd all been called there, apparantly, but Konan was nowhere in sight.

Sasori was sat on the floor with Deidara who was resting his back against the front of the sofa. Sasori was curled up in between his legs with the blanket wrapped around him. Deidara was much more relaxed in their Home now, seeing as Konan had allowed Deidara to stay pretty much permanently.

She hadn't said as much, but she hadn't argued when Deidara seemed to be constantly 'staying over' in Sasori's room. Much to Sasori's annoyance, Deidara was still paying the rent on his new placein the Arcane Territories as a backup - Sasori had already moved out of his with the intention of staying Home for a while. When Sasori had asked why the blonde still owned the new place, Deidara had replied with 'safety'. He refused to rely completely on Sasori's Family and saw it as another advantage to keep his own space available in case of emergencies.

While Sasori considered debating it, he didn't want to scare the vampire off. Deidara had been used to living alone for as long as they'd known eachother - and longer than even that. Despite seeing eachother practically every day and making future plans to live together, they'd never officially had a place of their own.

Sasori knew that his boyfriend needed his own space to be separate, and while he could choose any place that Sasori could take him to on his System, Deidara wanted something that was his own. Sasori had given up thinking about it. Deidara could afford it and it wasn't his problem. He was practically moved in to Sasori's room anyway, even adopting a few drawers and hangers for his clothes.

Deidara's fingers drew patterns on the nape of his neck - a newfound sensation that Sasori quite liked. It had taken a few weeks for things to settle, but their House had changed dramatically over the last few weeks.

For starters, there were more of them around. Deidara was fully healed and had no problems readjusting to his blood-diet, and Sasori had been quick to lay down the rules on relinquishing his own.

Kakuzu and Hidan had finished hunting their Bounty's and were taking a short break to focus on 'personal things' - as far as Sasori could gather, Hidan was making sacrifices and Kakuzu was spending more time in the lab - but both seemed to be around Home more often.

Apparantly Obito was actually related to the Uchiha's - 'ostracised and forgotten' according to Itachi - Deidara had laughed and Sasori wanted to hate the little thing, but Obito had quickly become Zetsu's third shadow. They were almost inseparable and nobody could ignore the fact that Zetsu's mood swings had lessened. While Obito hadn't 'moved in' like Deidara or Itachi seemed to have, he was around most days.

There was still a bit of tension when Itachi and Obito were in the same room, but they seemed to have agreed that both had found a new home, a different life, and a new slate was needed. Deidara had joked that next, there might be smiles and conversations between them instead of 'head-nods', but Sasori was sure it would go at its own pace.

The Uchiha's as a clan had pretty much disbanded into regularity. Itachi had stayed with Kisame - the two of them sprawled out on the sofa against eachother casually (Sasori would admit it was very soppy of his demon brother, but they were rather sweet together). Everybody seemed to accept that Itachi had helped, therefore his past with his fathers company was irrelevent now. He was family, Kisame had said so.

Though, like Deidara or Obito, Konan hadn't blessed him with a ring to officially mark them as such. She was indifferent when Kisame let him stay over, never saying a word when the numbers at the breakfast table seemed to grow. She adapted, cooked, and moved on. She hadn't yet formally accepted any of the new three into the House, but Sasori thought perhaps she was slowly cracking under their soppy pleas.

"Did anybody else get the impression the burning-ring meant 'get your ass back home, now'?" Hidan asked, and Kakuzu nodded slowly in agreement. Sasori fiddled with his own ring on his left thumb; He and Deidara had been redecorating their little place again when the ring had sent him rushing to the nearest cold tap to stop it searing his skin. It had burned like hell-fire against his skin until he'd thought to head Home. Deidara had wondered why he couldn't just take it off, but Sasori just couldn't explain the attachment. The ring wasn't something you just took off.

"Maybe she just got delayed" Sasori suggested, but they all knew it was an invalid point. Konan wasn't easily delayed.

"Is it possible that isn't what it meant?" Itachi asked quietly, and everybody with a ring shook their heads. Sasori counted his heartbeats - all fifteen of them until Konan quietly emerged from the other side of the room.

Kisame was the first to move, gently shifting Itachi from his resting position tangled around him.

"Ko," He said gently, but their blue haired quiet matriarch was clearly out of sorts. She walked up to Deidara first and passed him a small box.

"Wait," She told him, and Deidara nodded once. She moved to Itachi and Kisame next, where she gave Itachi a similar one and smiled a little at Kisame. Zetsu and Obito had come closer towards the group - they had stayed by the outer edges of the room quietly talking to themselves - and Obito received his little box with obvious surprise.

Konan still had one in her hand, but she tucked it into her jacket pocked at laced her delicate hands together in front of her.

"You can open them now" She told them, standing in front of the coffee table - the fireplace behind her - looking every inch the powerful witch she was. Sasori watched Obito open his, because he was directly opposite and Deidara was fiddling with his behind Sasori's back.

"They're on loan," Konan said carefully. "You'll have to earn them in order to keep them, but you've all deserved them, one way or another" She wasn't looking at anybody in particular. A nudge in the back made Sasori turn, eyeing the ring that Deidara now had placed on his right index finger as per instruction from the small note inside, a teal colour shining from it as it hit the light. Sasori brought his left thumb up to match it, his own silvery-purple ring distinctly similar. Sasori dropped his hand and turned to Konan, now fiddling with her own white band across her right middle finger. A glance at Itachi and Obito was all it took to realise they both had one too.

"And the other one?" Hidan asked, motioning towards the box in Konan's pocket. Hidan and Kakuzu already had their rings - everyone in their House now owned one.

"He's not ready yet" Konan said quietly, a sad smile on her face. Sasori's head swam. Oh, Konan…

"You're still hoping?" Kisame asked, no judgement in his voice - just a careful observation.

"He just needs time" She said surely. Nobody mentioned that it had already been five years, that she'd been shouldering the guilt for just as long. "Which is why I need to go"

"No" Kisame said first. "You'll only end up upsetting yourself"

"Then let me upset myself"

Kisame bit his bottom lip closed and Sasori noticed - along with everybody else - as Itachi placed his hand over the demon's arm.

"Are you sure it's a good idea?" Kakuzu asked. "Leaving us with the new recruits?" That was the going nick-name for the new additions. Obito was the only one who hadn't yet moved in un-officially.

"I trust you all to be sensible" She eyed Hidan for a moment. "The safe houses will still be protected, as will here" Her eyes scanned the entire of the living room. "My spells will still work, even if I cross the realms, it's not a problem. But in case anything does happen… you have your rings"

"How long?" Zetsu asked, his voice softer than normal. "Will you be gone, we mean"

"As long as it takes"

"You'll check in?" Sasori frowned at her. "Promise you'll at least do that?"

"Every week" She nodded in agreement and the heavy weight seemed to lift.

"Human realm?" Kakuzu asked.

Kisame watched her carefully when she nodded. "Most likely" She replied.

He had been the one to pry Konan out from the shadows when she was ready to shroud herself in them completely. He'd picked up the fragile pieces of her core, putting them back together stitch by stitch until she began to at least eat a meal. He'd been there through her nightmares and had been the one to fret every other hour about whether or not he should have obeyed her order to stay, when he should have gone instead.

If he had gone, the fucker could be just as dead as Yahiko and that would have been the end of the matter. She'd greive and have done with it. Instead, Kisame had stayed, the bastard had disappeared and Konan had clung to her hope that he'd come back.

None of them wanted to see the wreck that she was come back again.

"If you don't," He said, like a bargaining father. "I will end him"

"I know" She whispered. "Every Sunday, I promise"

And then the hugging began. Sasori moved first, offering to help Konan pack for her 'trip' as he held her close and thanked her.

"I'll take care of Dei, don't worry"

She smiled at him and he backed away Deidara, Hidan, Kakuzu, Kisame, Itachi, Zetsu - and finally Obito all hugged her and said their thanks. By the end of it, she was pink-faced and wiping away her tears.

"If it doesn't' work, it doesn't work" Kisame told her, reassurance laced into every word. "You still come back to your Home"

"I know" She smiled her happy smile and Sasori felt a little better. "So, now you all feel sorry for me, can I pick the movie tonight?"

"No fucking way!" They all leapt up, some for the remote, others for the video and DVD selection, but Konan kept where she was - laughing at them all - as they tried to argue it out between them.

THE END.