Chapter 9:

One and half months later

"Have you heard anything from Sasori?" Ino asked, placing Deidara's normal order of a chocolate scone and coffee in front of him. He sighed. "No, Ino, I have not. I didn't hear anything from him yesterday, haven't heard anything from him today, and I more than likely won't hear anything from him tomorrow."

"I wonder why he left, though?"

"I've been asking myself the same question for the past month and a half now."

"That's how long he's been gone now?"

"Yep."

"Wow," she breathed out, almost speaking to herself, "has the absence gotten any better for you?"

"No…it hasn't," he replied, the familiar pain hitting his chest, "I still hope every day that I'll walk into the room and he'll be sitting there at the desk, working on his puppets. But…the more I hope for that, the more I feel disappointment and it brings me farther down into just giving up completely."

"I guess you've accepted the fact that you love him, huh?"

"You know what? Fuck you, Ino," he snapped at her, causing the girl to blink rapidly. His face tightened into a snarl. "This isn't about whether you were right about my feelings for Sasori or not. This is the about the fact that Sasori has been missing for over one fucking month now. I can't get ahold of him, not matter how hard I try, no one else in the house has heard from him either, and that's what's concerning at the moment. Not about whether he may love me back or not."

"I'm sorry, Deidara," Ino apologized, sympathy clouding her gaze, "I know his absence is worrying you. It's worrying me, too. I just-"

Someone behind Deidara caught her attention, and he turned to find Naruto walking in, carrying a frog coin pouch in his right hand. He gave them his signature big-toothed goofy smile. "Hey, Ino, mind if I grab a quick dessert?"

"Hey, Naruto, yeah, no problem," she threw on her apron and walked behind the counter. She returned the smile. "What would you like?"

"Two chocolate croissants," he held up a five and handed it to her. While she was retrieving the order, Naruto trained his cerulean blue eyes on the clay artist still sitting at the table. "It looks like something's troubling you, Deidara."

"It's none of your business, brat," he huffed at the spiky-haired blonde.

Wait…did he just use the same word that Sasori used all the time?

Fuck, he was too emotionally screwed.

"What Deidara meant to say was," Ino came back into the conversation, handing the light pink paper bag over to Naruto, "is that his roommate in the frat house, Sasori, hasn't been back in over a month and has disappeared off somewhere."

"Well that's impossible," the Uzumaki exclaimed, delving a hand inside the bag and pulling out a croissant, taking a bite out of the fluffy pastry.

"And why is that impossible?" Deidara asked, scoffing at the boy's incompetence. Naruto cocked a half-confused brow at the artist. "Cause I just saw him walk down the path to the house."

Silence filled the café as the news struck Deidara and realization slammed itself into his face. He blinked slowly. "What?"

"I was walking over here and saw him heading over to the path that leads to the frat house. He seemed perfectly fine," Naruto explained, obviously not realizing how important that information was. Deidara shared a quick glance with Ino, who returned the gaze with a half-smile. "You go on; I'll get your stuff for you."

"Thank you," the clay artist stood up quickly and ran out the door, leaving a Naruto and Ino to continue their conversation alone.

Without much thought as to what he was going to do once he got to the house, Deidara ran as fast as he could across the university campus. How long had Sasori been back?! Surely he hasn't been back long, or else he would have heard about it by now!

Shaking his head, the blonde picked up his pace, racing past the stucco buildings of classrooms and ivy-covered brick walls of dorms, eyes picking up the sight of the start of the fraternity houses. Passing a few of them, he turned sharply around the corner, his feet crunching against gravel. He was instantly in the dense forest, the paved path pushing him forward. It was already well past dusk, the full moon rising slowly over the tree line as Deidara broke through into the clearing.

The house stood in the middle of the trimmed circle, ominous and foreboding. Panting heavily, he ran over and burst through the double front doors, racing past Itachi and Pain, who both called out his name, but he ignored them as he took the stairs two steps at a time, his heart hammering against his chest, all the stress and anxiety of the last month and a half pouring out of him as he reached the door to his room, grabbed the knob, and threw it open.

"SASORI!"

The redhead looked up from what he was doing, which was placing the drawers back in the nightstand. He squinted his amber eyes into a glare. "What is it, brat?"

"When…how…w-what time-?"

"Did you do this to my side of the room?" Sasori interrupted, picking up the sheets and duvet and throwing them on the bare mattress. "I walked in and everything was on the floor. I told you never to touch any of my stuff – "

"Sasori-"

"Especially my art tools I use to make my puppets," the puppeteer continued, walking over to the pile of clothes and picking up a shirt, "I keep those tools in mint condition after every use because they'll rust if I don't, and-"

"Sasori-"

"You just tossing them around like they don't even matter," Sasori went on, starting to pick up more clothes and putting them back in the closet, "of course, I wouldn't expect you to understand, since our views on art so greatly differ and-"

"I ONLY FUCKING DID THIS BECAUSE YOU DISAPPEARED!" Without warning, Deidara moved forward, grabbing ahold of the redhead by the shoulders and shoving him onto the ground, climbing on top until his legs were straddling the puppeteer's. He glared his bright blue eyes down into amber ones. "YOU DISAPPEARED AFTER YOU BASICALLY TOLD ME I WAS NOTHING, YOU DAMN BASTARD, UN! YOU DISAPPEARED WITHOUT TELLING ANYONE WHERE YOU WERE GOING! I CALLED DAY AFTER DAY, NIGHT AFTER NIGHT, HOPING YOU'D PICK UP, BUT I JUST KEPT GETTING YOUR FUCKING VOICEMAIL, UN! I WAS WORRIED SICK, SASORI NO DANNA, WORRIED THAT SOMETHING HAD HAPPENED TO YOU! YOU DISAPPEARED AFTER-!"

He leaned his head forward until his long, golden tresses hid his face. "After you kissed me…"

"Deidara-"

"PLEASE LET ME FINISH, UN!" he interrupted his roommate, silencing him. He felt tears working their way down his cheeks. "I had never been kissed before until you kissed me. And I know you said to me you don't remember it, but you did…you did. And when you did, I felt…I can't describe what I felt; I just know I felt something, un. And I know I sound weird-"

"Deidara-"

"And I'm probably just sputtering nonsense and I sound crazy, but, God, I hated not knowing if you were okay, un!" tears were finally spilling down his face and landing on the boy's cheeks underneath him. "And I have no idea why I'm saying these things. You hate me and my art, told me I was nothing, and, out of every person that has ever told me my art was nothing, no one's opinion has bothered me as much as yours, un. And I have no idea why, and it's making me crazy, and I hate it, but I'm so confused, and-"

"Deidara," Sasori's stern voice broke the blonde's rant. He opened his eyes, seeing a smirk playing on the redhead's lips. The boy under him slowly brought his hands to the bomber's face. "You…really talk too much."