Days passed in and out with the seemingly revolving front door. Like a factory, people came in and went out on schedule, like they were on a time card with forty hours standing in front of them. My job was easy now that Id caught up with the house work and Id even been trusted to make budgets for the household myself and help our not so friendly accountant with his job too.
The first few nights with the baby had been pretty sleepless, Mirai cried most of the night, but we'd all benefited from her. The silver haired biker was quieter, much quieter, and he no longer left and came home at odd hours of the night or blasted death metal music at oh my god o' clock.
Sasori remained himself, distant and quiet, and I remained myself, away from him.
I was pretty used to sleeping in late and going to bed after far too many drinks far too late at night, so when I was rudely awoken at five in the morning on a Thursday, I wasn't exactly happy.
"Who the hell is it?" I groaned, turning back over to pull the covers over my head, but the blanket was ripped off of me a second time.
"It's Tobi, listen, uh, Deidara needs your help. He and Hidan got into it," Tobi spoke in his normal voice, his tone apprehensive and hushed.
"Take him to the hospital, I'm not a doctor," I muttered, putting my arm over my eyes to block out my bedroom light.
"It's not that bad, he needs somebody that's not me to calm him down before he destroys my aunt and uncles house," Tobi responded, pulling on my arm. Heaving a heavy sigh, I sat up. I immediately tried to cover myself up, not wanting Tobi to see me in my pajamas even though they weren't revealing. He left the room and so did I after getting dressed.
We tracked across the back yard, the dew making my bare feet sort of itch as I crossed the threshold and walked up Tobi's back porch. I hadn't even bothered to look at Hidans door, but the first thing I noticed was that he was nowhere to be found. The second thing I noticed the the incredible state the house was in, that is, it was spotless. Hadn't Deidara supposedly destroyed it?
"Tobi what's going on here?" I asked, refusing to go any further than the sliding back door that was located in the home's kitchen.
"Nothing, we just wanted to talk to you," Tobi sneered, he after hearing his friends voice, Deidara waved at me from the other room.
"What's this about?" I asked, backing away, but I bumped into the door behind me. My nerves were almost always shot, but this situation was heading further south. Tobi rolled his eyes.
"Jesus Christ, calm down, nothing's gonna happen. I've got a little proposition for you, that's all."
"what kind of proposition?" I asked, my eyes still wide with almost fear.
"It's nothing big, don't worry," he lay a hand on my shoulder and guided me into the living room. I quickly shrugged his hand off, but took a seat on the sofa. I smoothed the wrinkles in my capris as the guys poured me a glass of half flat Mountain Dew, and it became evident the pair had been up all night. I was still a ball of nerves, like a million rubber bands about to break. I asked again what it was I was doing here.
"Well, uh, I was wondering how your date with Sasori went," Tobi replied, and I knew exactly where this was going.
"Ohh no, I'm not about to kiss and tell," I answered.
"You kissed him?" Deidara asked excitedly, both horribly immature boys on the edge of their seats.
"Figure of speech," I rolled my eyes, "besides, he said it didn't mean anything. Plus he's really not my type," I muttered, wringing my hands as Tobi got up, and retrieved a Manila envelope from a nearby table. When he returned, he handed it to me and motioned for me to open it.
"Sure he is, he's your type to a T. As much as he hates to draw things out, he just loves to hear himself talk, and you," Tobi snorted, "your opposites. I swear your too perfect for each other."
I tried not to listen as I carefully undid the clasp holding the top flap down and then looked inside before dumping the contents in my lap. More than a dozen pieces of paper fell out of all different sizes, some brightly colored others more monochromatic, and glancing over them, I realized they were wedding invitations.
"I don't usually show people this sort of thing, but I figured you'd have to trust me before you just went along with my plan," Tobi leaned over and dug a pastel blue invitation out of the pile, on it were two vaguely familiar faces. "That's my aunt, Konan. I set her up with Nagato, all though a bad pizza delivery scam."
"What does this have to do with me?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows.
"Everything, if you want it to. I think you and fire crotch would be really happy together."
"What?! No! Jesus, what? You can't, you can't just, do that to people! You can't just, screw with people's love lives!" I exclaimed, packing the wedding invitations back into the envelope.
"A simple no would have been fine," he sighed, and took it back from me. The wheals in my head still turned and I thought to ask a question.
"How did you just, get all these people married? Like, how...?"
"I understand chemistry," he smirked, "I have a zero percent divorce rate."
"What about you though?" I questioned, looking down into my lap. Jesus this guy was a psychopath!
"I'm Happier alone," he answered, sitting back on the couch and folding his right leg over the left, "but back to you. Your sure you don't want to go though with it?" It's not like you couldn't back out if you decided you didn't like him, besides, 'just' another friend wouldn't hurt would it?" He flashed me a smile and folded his arms confidently across his chest, "I can guarantee you won't get hurt."
"Are you bribing me?" I asked, taking a sip of my drink after examining the cup for cleanliness.
"Do you want me to bribe you?" He asked, but laughed it off after. I couldn't tell if he was joking or not. "Just go on another, say, two dates with him, humor me."
And that was how I ended up walking my sorry ass across the back yard to get myself ready for the day. Deidara joined me with a small piece of paper in his hand. We parted at the steps, and he headed outside to tape 'my' date invitation to Sasori's car.
There was just no avoiding it, Tobi refused to take no for an answer. I thought he was going to get up, seize my shoulders and shake me silly if I didn't comply. So as I dressed for the day, all I could think about was what people would say. I supposed that it was more anxiety than anything, I always felt like people were judging me.
Shrugging it off for the time being, I got an early start on things, I began by checking all my chore/schedule sheets and the cleanliness of the refrigerator, then I checked the status of the living room, and lastly I walked into the office to snoop around in the expense and revenue reports just to pretend like I was busy.
Kakuzu returned home early, much to my distain, but I hadn't left anything for him to yell at me about. I turned in my two week meal plan and kicked back on the couch until the tenants came home. They followed their usual order, and I stayed on the couch until Sasori walked into the door.
"Hi," I greeted lamely, twisting around to look at him as he kicked off his shoes. Deidara hadn't followed him in and I thought that odd.
"What is the meaning of this?" He asked, presenting the note that'd been left on his car. He seemed mildly offended, his cold gaze set on me. I flashed him a sheepish smile.
"I thought I articulated that I do not wish to pursue a relationship," he continued, looking slightly annoyed now.
"I was listening," I muttered, my smile becoming more of a nervous expression than a bashful one. I tried to handle this exactly how Tobi inducted me. Sasori evaluated me for another moment before he sighed.
"Can't you pick some other poor, younger man to bother?"
"Well, uh, you see," I stuttered, "I just um, I liked the way that, uh," I paused for a moment to remember my coaching, "it's just for fun. Nothing serious."
The red head sighed once more left the room, going upstairs with an apple after briefly stopping in the kitchen. I hadn't gotten a straight answer out of him, but he also hadn't said no. So I sat back on the couch and tried not to let the crushing nervous feeling I had get the best of me.
I watched Hidan come down stairs next toting his little screaming responsibility close to his chest.
"I need help," he nearly screamed over the baby's cries, "she won't stop."
I shrugged, "not my problem."
"The hell it isn't! I need help," He repeated. He looked tired, bags under his eyes and cloths seeming more wrinkled than usual.
"Did you change her, or feed her, or, I dunno what do babies need?" I asked, standing up to look at the baby. Her face was red and tear streaked.
"Yeah, I did all that, God fucking christ, make her stop your a woman!" He shouted, shoving her into my arms. Well fuck, now what? I tried rocking her a little and bouncing her, but I was a stranger and I only made her cry harder. Hidan and I were too focused on Mirai to notice Kakuzu leave the office and join us in the living room.
"When was the last time she had a nap?" The accountant asked, scaring the shit out of me and offering to take the child. I complied and he bounced her a bit harder. She was still just as upset, but the bouncing distracted her, so her cries quieted.
"I dunno, she just kinda passes out when she's ready," Hidan answered and Kakuzu shook his head.
"Go lay her down and get a warm bottle, she needs a nap you idiot," the accountant replied and I snuck away into the kitchen to call in something for dinner and then upstairs before they started arguing. At first I was headed to my bedroom, but Sasori's door caught my eye. He'd left it ajar again, and I thought to close it for him despite it not working out the first time.
I reached for his door handle and just as my fingers brushed it, it was jerked from my grip. Sasori stood in the now open doorway, his expression interested. It was almost as if he'd baited me.
"Could I help you?" He asked, his tone bored and body expression tired.
"No, I was just going to shut your door for you," I said, a bit more confident than Id thought I was able to muster. He studied me a moment before he opened the door further and stepped out of the way.
"Come in for just a moment."
"Sure," I replied, stepping in. I didn't move much farther into the room than the door. I wanted to make a quick escape if necessary. I took just a second to survey the room, not a single thing was out of place, the carpet a dark brown and the furnishings dark wood. He had a single curtain pulled and the bed properly made, giving the room a uniquely lit and distinguished feeling. He left the door to sit down at a small cherry wood desk, spinning around in his executive chair to look at me. We regarded each other for a second more before he spoke.
"Deidara is pressuring you into this," he stated, pulling the note from his pants pocket, "this is in his hand writing, not yours."
"I had him write it for me?" I shrugged and gave him another sheepish smile.
"Tobi is in on it too isn't he?" Sasori sighed.
"Well no um, it's not a big deal, I mean," I sputtered, slightly afraid of what Tobi would do if he found out Sasori knew about the plan, but I was sure he'd be much more aggressive about it. Sasori shook his head.
"I suppose I'll have a talk with them," he responded a bored expression reclaiming his features, "I'll go ahead and tell him we won't be going on any further 'dates.' "
"Great," I smiled and I excused myself as fast as I could while still being polite. Tobi was going to kill me for fucking this up! I calmly left the room and climbed the steps after telling Sasori good bye and once up the steps to my room and slammed the door behind me to clutch my aching side as panic set in. I felt like I couldn't breathe again, but counting seconds, breathing in my mouth and out my nose, I persuaded myself to calm down. I needed a drink, and bad. I pulled my bottle of vodka from the shelf and used a cup Id been keeping upside down (to prevent germs ) on the neck of the bottle, and proceeded to pour myself a drink, and then another, and another.
I needed to figure something out to tell Tobi to prevent him from making my life worse, I needed an excuse or something and I though that all while pressing my lips to my cup again only to find it was empty. Well this was certainly another problem larger than the one that persisted in my head, and needed to be righted straight away.
I tripped my way down both flights of stairs, thankfully not falling before I found Deidara sitting at the kitchen table eating the Thai food I'd ordered for the house earlier. He saw me before I said anything, and the longer he looked at me, the stranger his look became.
"Are you okay? Your face is all red," he asked, his speech impediment catching on his last word.
" 'm fine," I slurred, tripping over my words like I had my feet moments ago.
"Are you drunk?" He asked, putting down his fork. I shook my head no.
"I'm not, I just need to go to Walgreens" I replied, speaking slower to get my words out clearer. "Would you ask, um, um," I stuttered.
"Did you want me to ask Tobi?" He asked again, furrowing his eyebrows, I nodded. Kill two birds with one stone.
"You can go with me," he said, getting up and offering to hold my hand. I didn't understand why until he pulled me away from a wall I hadn't perviously seen in my path. I felt like everything, including my feet, were shifted to the right. I had a hard time slipping on my sandals, and that seemed strange to me because didn't they just slip on? I didn't get a chance to get mad at them though, Deidara kicked them to the side a little, accidentally he claimed, and I managed to get them on. I didn't think it strange the accident happened twice in a row.
"What's wrong with my feet?" I muttered, tripping once more over the grass as we crossed yards for the second time that day. In reality I knew exactly what was wrong with my feet.
"Grass is kinda long," my blonde friend reassured, pulling on me once again to stop me from wandering off into Tobi's aunt's flower bed. I couldn't feel my face at his point, but putting my hands on my cheeks they felt flushed. Deidara sat me down on a step and went in to get Tobi, leaving me to muse about what time it was exactly and why my fingers were so pink. By now I'd completely forgotten about my fuck up earlier.
I didn't hear the door open or the foot steps on the deck, but I did feel Tobi tap my shoulder. He offered me a hand which I needed to get up and they both helped me into the back seat of the car, sitting suspiciously on a towel with another under my feet.
"Walgreens?" The dark haired man asked me, and nodding I felt sort of like a bobble head. I didn't look out the window because I knew I'd get car sick, so I starred at my apparently very interesting feet, watching them warp and spin to the right.
"What 're youso quiet for?" I asked the men in the front seat, not able to look up, and neither answered me. I was reminded that Id lost all track of time when we stopped quite suddenly. We'd arrived. I reached for the door handle but the car locked before I could opened it.
"Whats the deal?" I asked, getting tangled in my seat belt as I tried to remove it.
Tobi climbed out of the car quickly, leaving it running and his friend in the front seat, "Deidara says you drink vodka? I'll go in and get it for you."
I watched him hoof it into the store and disappear. What seemed like hours later he reappeared with two grocery bags, however I wasn't allowed access to them until I agreed Id stay over a while. Social drinking was better than drinking alone, so when we found our way back to Tobi's house, I parked myself on the sofa.
Deidara was young, skinny and short, giving him a low tolerance level, so after his third shot and fifteen minutes, he slurred his words worse than I did. I tried not to pay any attention to him, taking my own shots and watching the ever suspicious Tobi who for whatever reason wasn't drinking. He held a cell phone in his hand, casually checking it for text messages and a package of instant ramen cooking on the stove for his own dinner.
"Tobi holy shit! Your not still on about that are you?!" Deidara exclaimed quite suddenly, climbing over the back of the couch, and by extension me, only to end up on the floor. He was quick to pick himself up though, sitting cross legged and leaning on my leg. Was it just me or was my vision getting clearer?
"I'm not," Tobi smiled, putting his phone down in sort of a sheepish way.
"You are! Oh, oh, Kimi, Kimi, Tobi is sad about his ex-girlfriend!" Deidara stated, his speech impediment combined with his drunken state making his words harder to understand. I had to ask him two more times what he meant before I got it all. I didn't much care about Tobi's ex-girlfriend and I shouldn't contribute to it I decided, so leaning back on the plush couch I let my head roll to the side.
"Tobi who do you live here with?" I asked. He was about to respond when three things happened in time with each other to prevent it. First, the smoke alarm went off. The noodles on the stove had boiled off all of the water and the pot began to smoke. By the time we could smell it, it was too late. The next thing to happen was the car alarm going off. The keys had somehow ended up on the floor and as Tobi got up, he managed to step on them. The last thing to happen was the horrible sound of the flat screen TV mounted on the wall exploding. For no reason at all it seemed, the screen cracked, the circuits fried and the whole thing fell off the wall sending Deidara into a fit of laughter.
I thought I should probably do something, so after standing up and steadying myself, I unplugged the TV and opened a few windows. I opened the sliding glass back door last, letting the smoke billow out it as I tried to access the damage. Tobi was running the steaming pot under a stream of cold water in the sink, the bottom red as the stove. It wasn't too bad, no fire, the pot hadn't melted to the stove, so we seemed pretty okay except for the burnt noodles covering the floor. I supposed Deidara must have found the keys because the car alarm stopped abruptly and all was quiet except for the sound of the water hissing as it became steam. I went to pour myself another drink in the living room when I noticed the label on the bottle.
"You've been giving me nonalcoholic vodka? Where did you even get this stuff?" I asked. I was more surprised than I was angry, but I was pretty angry. How had I not noticed? Was I that far gone?
"Only for the past three hours," Tobi called from the kitchen. I looked at the clock now that I had the majority of my barring, it read eleven. If Id started drinking before dark at eight, that'd been more than enough time to sober up. Rasping on the back door stopped me from arguing with him any further. I turned around to watch Sasori let himself in the screen door and survey the room.
"Before you give me another one of your convoluted stories Tobi, I'm going to ask you once and only once to keep it down," the red head seethed. Oh Jesus I though watching them from the living room, he couldn't know Deidara was drunk, he'd probably fire him or something, so I decided to make myself a distraction.
"Sorry Sasori, uh, it was my fault the car alarm went off," I cut in to draw attention to myself, "reached my hand in the open window. Just a couple, uh, unfortunate events," I laughed nervously, putting on a smile to match. He regarded me for just a second before Tobi butted in.
"Miss kimi was just leaving too! Why don't you walk her home?" Tobi screeched in that horrible fake voice of his.
"Because I'm not going home. Hidan's," he paused for a second to find the right word, " ward is having a bad night," he said very matter of factly. I assumed that meant Mirai was back screaming her head off.
"Oh oh! Tobi's bed time is right now! I'm gonna take Deidara and go upstairs! Miss Kimi and Mr Sasori are welcome to sleep in the living room!" Tobi sort of giggled after he spoke, and I'd never seen anything so corny or fake in my life. He was gone a moment later, taking Deidara and childishly dashing up the stairs.
"I thought I'd get as much from him," Sasori sighed, "you should pay more attention to the company you keep."
"I'll remember that," I muttered. I got myself a drink of water in attempt to ward off a hang over headache and settled down in the arm chair since Sasori had stolen the couch. He propped his torso up on the arm but stretched his legs out, looking at his nails with with a bored expression. If Id known he was going to be this much fun, I would have saved myself the trouble of getting the water. With no tv to watch, I decided the answer to this problem was to drink until I fell asleep. I'd downed my first shot of vodka, the real vodka Deidara had been drinking, when I realized I had his attention.
"I didn't know you drank," he remarked. I sort of laughed at him and took another shot.
"Want some?" I offered, pulling a highlighter orange shot glass from the pile of plastic disposable ones and poured him a drink regardless of what the response was going to be because one of us would drink it. I could see the gears in his head turning. I knew there was a rumor going around I was a heavy drinker and I could tell Sasori hadn't wanted to believe it. I think he might have pitted me or maybe he was discussed, I couldn't tell. To my surprise though, he picked up the shot and swallowed it. I could see the discomfort on his face so I handed him my water.
"Take another, let's have a contest," I suggested, smiling and feeling sort of dopey.
"You've got a higher tolerance than I do, you'll win," he pointed out, but I poured him a second shot anyway and a third for myself. I shrugged and agreed with myself to stop counting after that.
"what do you think they're doing up there?" I asked, looking up at the ceiling as if I might see something. He looked up too.
"I haven't the slightest. They're quiet and that's all that matters," Sasori muttered and sipped his drink instead of swallowing it. He was smaller than I was, but stocky, so I figured if he was going to get drunk it'd be in the next few drinks.
"You've been drinking before this?" He asked, I nodded. He poured himself another drink and it was quiet for a while as the alcohol took a hold of both of us, driving us to drink more. I got up to pee finally and found myself falling over and catching myself on Sasori's shoulder. I grinned at him and he stood up to help me, but when he fell, he brought me down with him on the couch.
"This is embarrassing," I muttered and he acted as if he hadn't heard me.
"Earlier, when I said we wouldn't be seeing each other, you looked bothered," he pointed out, and I didn't have a clear enough head to tell him it was Tobi's fault. I shrugged and tried to get off of him, but he seized my wrists and pulled me back down, the next thing I knew I was kissing him.
I let my eyes drift close and my arms snake around his shoulders. He did the same and we pulled each other closer, working our lips together like tomorrow would never come. He was so soft and warm, I couldn't believe I'd kissed him until I pulled away gasping for air. It felt like a hundred degrees between us but this hot summer night probably came in somewhere around seventy-nine.
"Your so cool, you always act so cool," I remarked, panting softly. Why had I never noticed how beautiful his eyes were or how perfect his skin was? He ran his hands down my sides, feeling each curve before his hands came to rest on my hips. He look at me, his mouth slightly open as if he wanted to speak but couldn't. I closed my eyes and kissed him again, running my tongue on his bottom lip. I felt light headed and heavy bodied as he returned my advances, pressing his tongue against mine. He rubbed a hand on the small of my back and I fisted my hand in his hair, writing my name into his mouth over and over as he did the same to me. It was his turn to pull away then, and we both had to catch our breathes.
"I've got to work tomorrow," he whispered and I nodded. He turned on his side and efficiently dumped me off of him in favor of laying next to him. My back pressed up against his chest and his hand still resting on my hip. I was warm, almost too warm, but I was happy too.
So, if your thinking "Why does she just keep doing what Tobi says? Why does it matter?" its because of Kimi's anxiety! Shes so worried about him and what he might do, she just goes along with it. That also goes along with why shes so germaphobic and why she doesn't seem to have much of a personality.
later chapters though! stay tuned!