I could hear a bird chirping in the distance, a cricket off to my left a bit and vaguely I could hear the wind blowing though the pines as I regained consciousness. Rubbing my eyes before I opened them allowed for clear vision as I sat up, using my husbands chest to push off of. He was just waking up too, laying very still for a moment before he joined me in a sitting position.
We hadn't been outside, I knew that much for sure, we'd been in my car, with the tiny box, it was all coming back to me.
Presently it was dark. I was still wet and chilled but I was one hundred percent sure we had returned to the other world. A clammy hand rested itself over top mine, moving my right hand gently so it rested on his left arm.
"Pinch me, just incase," he asked, very seriously for such a silly request. I did as he asked and we both examined the red mark after.
"Is it real?" I asked, he nodded.
If I could have wiped sweat from my forehead, I would have as I heaved a final heavy sigh of relief. No more money problems, no more worrying about furniture or apartments, no more college, no more work, not even the slightest bit of panic about what my parents would think! This was my home, my final answer to it all, and I felt damn good about it.
I couldn't help but laugh.
"Didn't we do that exact same thing when we crossed over the first time?" I asked though giggles. He shrugged. I was dying with laughter in the next second. Something about that was just so funny, but I couldn't place exactly what. As my hysteria died off, I reached out to hold his hand again. Some how in getting here I realized that I'd let go. Resting my palm on his gave me a pleasure nothing else could, that was, until my palm grew wet. I jerked his arm in an excited way, twisting around so I could see just what had caused it.
"They're back!" I squealed, and Indeed the mouths on his palms were back. Restored to their former destructive glory.
"Just that one," he brought attention to his other hand which was void. He then proceeded to reach his hand under his shirt and check for the one that had previously been on his chest. He shook his head.
"Who cares?" I asked, standing up and pulling him with me, "I'm so happy, let's go get something to eat or something, come on, I'm still cold."
"Okay, okay hold on. I need to figure out just where we are," Deidara brushed himself off to waste some time as he thought about it, and thought about what was nearby. I didn't expect him to remember, he knew a lot of things but he didn't have a map memorized. In fact, I don't remember him ever using a map, not even on the way to vegas.
After getting his barring about him again, he pulled me to the left, and we set on our way walking. I couldn't help but smilie.
"In the next town over, maybe you should try another test, you know for," he trailed off, "anyway, I'm gonna try and find us someplace to stay tonight."
"That's fine with me," I said a bit more cheerful than I felt. My nerves were getting the best of me now we were talking about tests.
We couldn't go the same way we had when I first arrived here, instead we had to head the other way across the clearing near the lake and fight a group of bramble bushes to get back to the road. After that we just kept walking until we caught a ride on the back of a hay wagon driven by a kind old farmer and his oxen. After arriving in town Deidara and I walked around, trying hard to pick pocket some of the wealthier looking men, until finally we just picked a man out of the crowd to just take it from. It was my job to run distraction, I just had to walk up and talk to him, but I barely got a sentence in before Dei just straight up took his wallet out of his back pocket and ran.
I pretended to be afraid while the man tried to give chase, but my husband was faster. He'd been out for a while, but he still had all of his ninja skills. He was on top of a building in seconds, disappearing over roof tops. I made myself scarce before the man had time to come back, and meet my husband around the corner in a dark alleyway.
We took his money but tossed his wallet. I wanted to give it back, however Deidara insisted his finger prints were on it and we had to. I had no other choice but to agree to put it in the dumpster nearby, but I did leave his pictures out, placing them on the ground as we left the ally. We walked though a small market before, and each walked off with an apple without the woman running the fruit stall even noticing. We had, however, caught someone's attention.
"Don't look, but someone's fallowing us," Deidara whispered so low it was barely audible. I of course, wanted to look behind me, but caught just as I realized what he'd just said.
"Who is it? What should we do?" I asked, my tone mocking his.
"Don't freak out," he spoke, "I think it's an iwa-er, a shinobi from my village. I think maybe he thinks he knows me. Were gonna take a left up here and try to loose him in the crowd down that street. At the first cross road, go left, I'm gonna go right."
I tried hard not to increase my pace, and found myself watching my feet to stop from tripping I was so nervous. I asked myself why I thought it was so much better here in the first place, it was like I'd forgotten that we spent the majority of our time running from some crazy asshole trying to attack us, except this time, we hadn't had time to get ahold if any weapons. As we reached the crowd, slowly we stemmed off each other. Looking to my side, I could see his blond hair getting farther away until it totally disappeared. He was walking much faster than I was, and I assumed he was trying to use himself as bait. I was getting stressed out, my stomach was doing flips, until I caught the smells coming from a restaurant, and that's when I felt like my guts were inside out. finally I had to completely stop. I ducked down an alley way and fallowed it to the other side where there were less people, and I promptly threw up right there in the street. I had both hands on a brick walls, my head down low trying to hold down my lunch when a man from seemingly nowhere appeared to my right.
"Miss, you look like you could use some help. I'll escort you."
The man was dressed in red, one sleeve of his crimson shirt longer than the other with a brown flak jacket covering it. His headband was tied in a bandana sort of way that covered his hair, but it bore the symbol of my husbands home. I was in some deep shit.
"I don't need your damn help," I hissed, coughing a bit before righting myself, "back off before you get your ass handed to you."
"Miss, please don't cause a seen. Your under arrest," he spoke in the same even tone he had before, firm and commanding.
"I said I don't need any help!" I shouted, and turned to run, but he was much faster. His elbow hit the back of my head, sending me not only crumbling to the ground, but into the dark.
...
When I woke up, I was quite surprised that I was still alive. Immediately I knew something was wrong, there has to be a reason I was still alive. I'd barely sat up to rub the goose egg on the back of my head when a man carrying papers entered the room. He was not the same man that arrested me, but I trusted him no more. I pulled my legs up agents me and backed up agents the wall as far as I could, my eyes never leaving my guest.
"Please calm down, I'm not here to hurt you," the man muttered, reading his free hand in surrender. This man had short, shaggy red hair that matched his shirt sleeved top, small square glasses framed his face.
"Where's Deidara," I demanded, the man looked unimpressed.
"He's in lock down. If you cooperate, we'll let him out," the man paused for a moment to sigh, "look, his finger prints are all over you, so we know your connected, please tell me the truth, nothing bad will happen."
I didn't say anything a as he began his questioning.
"How long have you known him, and how long have you known he's a criminal?" The man asked, I refused to speak.
"Where had he been for the past five years? How many people has he killed?" He asked again, but again I refused to talk.
"Look I know that you know, what, is he plotting a mass take over? Do you know how many innocent lives he's taken?" The man was practically yelling, frustrated with my silence.
"Go to hell," I growled, and I thought for a moment he was going to attack me, until he sighed and relaxed.
"Okay, we can do thus the hard way," he groaned, and closed the gap between us. He reached his arm out and attempted to touch me, and I tried to slap his hand away, but he was on top of me in seconds, pinning me down and pressing his palm to my forehead. I thrashed and screamed, but it didn't do any good.
Within seconds of his touch, I could feel a heat on my forehead, and a squirming in my brain. I realized he was trying to read my mind just as he over took me. Everything he could gave possibly wanted to know was in front of him, but he choose only to look at the memories from before we for my world.
"What are these big black spots?" He muttered to himself, playing our fight with Madara Uchiha over and over. He could only get up until the portal opened, and it seemed to be frozen. He slowly removed his hand from my head and his body from on top of mine, allowing me to finally take the breathes I hadn't been taking.
"What are you doing, why can't I see?" The man accused, but I could only shrug. I realized then he couldn't have seen anything that happened in my world, those were the black spots. That was probably a good thing, the last thing I wanted was for a stranger to see me having sex. He looked at me with a sort of contempt I'd never seen before, threw down the papers and left the room, slamming the door behind him.
I waited just a moment to make sure he was gone before I got off the cot I'd been laying on to look at the papers. Picking them up I saw they'd taken my vitals, drawn some charts I couldn't read, and finally the last paper I picked up held the results of a pregnancy test.
I felt violated, some had touched me below the belt without my consent, and taken something that wasn't even life threatening. I was angry, all up until I noticed the results.
There in bold faced print, the word 'expecting.'
My jaw went slack, my lips forming a tiny o, and I found myself shaking just a little. Oh god, there was my conformation. No more wondering.
I sat on the floor until four men, guards this time, came to get me. The lead me down a hall way, and then threw me into a small, wood paneled room containing a bench, a white door and Deidara's mother, Miku. The guards took a spot in each corner of the room as I went to my mother in law.
"Oh god, not you too," I groaned as I took a seat next to her.
"Yeah, me too, how you feeling? I heard about your, uh, condition," she spoke calmly as she wrapped me into a hug, "Deidara is in that room right now, talking to the Tsuchikage."
"Who?" I asked, never having heard of the term.
"The village leader. There's another civil war happening as we speak, Deidara told me that the village wants him as a solider," Miku sounded bitter was she finished her sentence. My husband? A soldier?
"He can't!" I exclaimed, "he can't, he's already half crazy!"
Miku put her finger to my lips to shush me, looking at the door nervously. It made sense now, why I was here, why his mother was here, and why they'd given me a pregnancy test, we were bargaining chips.
"He doesn't have a choice," she tried to explain, but I wouldn't listen. I wasn't having it. I tore away from her and strode across the room to beat on the door with a closed fist as hard as I could.
"You stupid bastards! Who the hell do you think you are? Were his god fucking family!" I screamed with a cracking voice that threatened tears. This was so unfair!
The door opened ever so slowly to reveal my husband, looking a bit beat and stressed to say the least. His face looked pale with a few bruises covering his face and neck, he'd been stripped of his coat, jeans and black t-shirt and put into an ill fitting grey pants without a shirt. His chest held more bruises, especially where the mouth on his chest used to be, and red marks were clear on his wrist from hand cuffs. His beautiful, blond hair though, his golden lions mane, was still tied on top of his head long and stick straight, and though his bangs had been hacked off, his pony tail still allowed him his pride. I didn't touch him, just stood and starred.
"Hi," he greeted lamely.
"Hi," I returned. His grey irises watched me for a moment, studied me, scanned me for any scrape, bruise or otherwise, but finally came to rest on the hemline of my shirt. No, he wasn't looking at my shirt, he knew too.
"I decided I'm going to war," he said under his breathe, maybe hoping I wouldn't hear him, but instead I exploded.
"No! No, no! You can't go! No! You have to stay here, come on, you can't go to war, your gonna get killed, please stay," I wanted to say more, but I found myself unable though the ugly sobbing.
"I can't," He said quietly, I wanted to know why, but I didn't ask and he didn't tell.
"I want to go with you then! I can fight, I can, I can do it, please take me with you, please," I pleaded, surprising even myself that my words were comprehendible.
"Stop, don't do this please," gently he reached out and touched my soon to be swelling abdomen, "we both know why you can't fight. If I don't go, their gonna kill me and..." He stopped himself before he said it, but I already knew, "I'll be fine, I've been to war before remember? My mom is gonna take care of you while I'm gone,"
"So either way my kid is out a dad?" I threw my arms around his shoulders, hoping I could hold him to this spot with me forever.
"No, I'm coming back," he took my head between his hands and used his thumbs to wipe my eyes, "I told you I would protect you, and I'm going to. I have to go right now, I'll be back to see you before I leave though, alright?"
He kissed me before he pushed me away, a kiss that felt very hopeless to me. As he turned around and walked back to where he'd just came, I wrapped my arms around myself and cried, clutching my elbows and gritting my teeth. One of the men who escorted us here came forward as Deidara closed the door back into the meeting room.
"Don't fucking touch me, don't touch me!" I shouted as he raised a hand to push me out of the waiting room.
"Please don't fight me miss," he droned, patronizing me like I hadn't just received news of a death sentence, like I was just some useless woman.
"I'm his god damn wife, back off!" I commanded, refusing to move, "you stupid sons a bitches, don't any of you realize what just happened?"
"Mei, that's enough," Miku scolded, coming forward now too, "come on, let's go, we've got to get you settled."
She pulled me close to her, pushing my head into her shoulder as she lead the way out of the building.
"Miss! Yeah that'll be the day!" I huffed. I could have spat in their dumb fucking faces if my mother in law hadn't started jabbering to me to pull my attention away from it all. She was talking about cribs and strollers and booties, but I didn't see how we could possibly use those things, how we could possibly move on, without Dei?
"Do you think it's gonna be a boy or a girl?" Miku asked in a disgustingly cheerful tone. Taking my attention away from the road in front of me, I looked at her very seriously.
"I uh... I haven't thought about it," I muttered, "I guess maybe a boy would be nice."
"Regardless, I hope it gets your disposition," my mother in law joked, but I didn't laugh. I was to sad, to angry. we arrived back at her apartment soon after, and I retreated to my husbands old room, which had remained unchanged since we'd been here last. I used my arm to cover my eyes agents the sun light and rested the other on where my baby should have been growing. I started feeling sick again, I thought I might puke again, but I never found myself having to get out of bed. I'd dozed off for a while until the smell of food woke me up, and that did send me to the bathroom.
"Mei, are you alright?" Miku asked, standing in the door way. I wished I could have slapped her. Hell no I wasn't alright.
"May," I choked out I between dry heaves, "it sounds the same, but that isn't my real name."
She didn't speak, she just stood there for a couple more minutes before she walked off. I assumed she was pissed that I'd lied, but with my head in the toilet I honestly couldn't have cared less. I heard my mother in law start her meal, and when the clunking of a fork on a plate stopped, I assumed she'd finished.
"I haven't lied to you about anything else," I called, shifting my position to lay curled up on the floor instead of slumped agent the toilet. Honesty must have been something scared in this household, after what happened to her son and what was hinted at about her husband, I didn't blame her. I could hear her walking again, and her foot falls came to rest again in the doorway. She stood there for a while, but I couldn't see her. I had my back to the door because of the way the toilet faced and I didn't have the energy to turn around.
"Your pale," she spoke in a low, calm tone. Sighing after speaking, she proceeded to throw a blanket over me, and sit down on the floor behind me. She leaned agents the wall, not that I could see it.
" 'm fine," I told her. I didn't want her to worry.
"Your fine but not really," she joked, but again I didn't laugh.
"What was your wedding like? I wish I could have been there," her subject change was very effective. It not only got my mind off throwing up, but I would later realize that she barely knew me.
"Uh, we eloped," I sighed, "just got in my uh... Well, we ran away. All the way across uh, the country. It's how I ended up with this," I told her, patting just a bit lower than my stomach.
"That sucks!" She laughed, a bit obnoxiously too, but I didn't blame her, I'd laugh at my dumb ass too. And it did suck. This really sucked.
I felt draned, physically and emotionally after today. I felt like I couldn't even lift my arms or move my legs. I still felt like this was all a mistake. I had yet to realize that I was still broke, still living in someone else's house, with a baby I wasn't ready for on the way.
"Don't worry about it though, I want you guys to stay, I really hate living by myself," she moved my hair out of my face and patted my shoulder as she spoke. I sighed again, still not completely convinced.
Miku got a few minutes later, claiming she thought she heard something. Just as she made her way to the door, I heard it too, a knock. She stopped mid stride and came to close the door on me, blocking me from view. I knew it was either one of two people, a government man here to kill us, or Deidara. I heard the door open, but I found myself still unable to move to see.
"Hello mother," Spoke a voice I could never mistake.
"Hello," Miku returned, and I wonder if they paused to hug. His mother was just that sort of person. I felt like maybe they were talking about what was happening, and I was a bit pissed that I wasn't included. Im a big girl, I could know things.
"She's in the bathroom by the way," Miku sounded like she was instructing him as he pushed open the door, and then closed it behind him. Before I could turn around, he was pulling me up and kissing my cheek and wrapping me in a tighter hug than I'd ever felt.
"I'm sorry your sick," he whispered as I found my footing. He looked a bit bittersweet as he smiled at me.
"I'm okay," I smiled back, until I realized just what was happening.
"I want to know what happened in that room," I said grasping his shirt. He was going to leave again, I knew, but not before he told me how we got into this mess.
"This village has changed so much. The old man that used to run the place died and a civil war broke out, but now the loosing side is still pretty pissed I guess. They want to use me as a weapon, I guess the bounty for my capture was higher than it ever was just after we left, that guy you pushed though the portal ran his mouth," my husband explained.
"Why do they want you alive though? Arn't you a criminal?" I asked, still having trouble putting together the pieces.
"I guess anyone ever wanted by the government was put on a list, dead or otherwise. They need solders, and fast, because of how many they lost," he was oddly talkative and calm I noticed. He was going to war and he didn't even seem afraid? I looked for the answer in his eyes, and found it in his dilated pupils. He was drugged, just enough to keep him calm.
"I still can't understand how your going along with this," I sighed, but that was a lie. I knew what he was going to say before he even said it.
"Because they were going to kill you. They were going to kill you both in front of me and then force me to fight anyway. Why do you think you were both together? I don't care what they did to my hair or how hard they hit me, I couldn't stand for something to happen to my family," he finished and I marveled at the transformation he'd made. When I first meet him he only cared about himself, he'd of rather killed me than anything else, but now he was willing to risk his life for my sake. He'd been a survivalist, but now at twenty four, he had an entirely different set of priorities.
I played over the last day in my head, but from his point of view. He didn't say it, but where ever they'd held him they beat him, and tried to humiliate him, to wear him down before they gave him an ultimatum. I couldn't even begin to think about how he must feel right now. Explaining himself to his wife who carried his child. Both of which, he might never see again.
He stayed the night that night, but was gone when I woke up the next morning.
I held back tears when I realized he'd left without so much as saying good bye, but he was coming back, right?