Deidara was disappointed, completely and simply. It had all just been a dream. There were no dolls aside from the three girls he'd seen last night at the Christmas party. Sasori wasn't real. Sasuke wasn't real. Hinata was only real in the doll-like quality she still held. It had all just been a dream…

He got up that morning, because he knew if he didn't he may never get up again. The Christmas Day feeling hadn't set in completely, but he was still dimly aware of it. He staggered out of his room after pulling on his rumpled formal attire from last night, waving good morning to a few other guests. Everything seemed happy and complete and pristine, aside from the fact that he didn't have Sasori. Hinata wouldn't have Sasuke, or that smile she held only for him. Ino and Sakura wouldn't have their liveliness or radiance. Everything and everyone was pristine.

Pristine like a china doll. You could only look, never touch. If you touched it, it might break. It could break. It would break. Reality was like that most days. If you questioned it, it was liable to break. Deidara wanted to push the doll off of its pedestal, but instead just walked out into the living room, just to see. A few Hyuuga family members were there, including Hinata. She glanced up as he stood in the doorway, but there was nothing in her vacant, ashen eyes. She was sitting beside her sister on the couch, both of them suffused with the warm glow of Christmas morning and the Christmas tree.

Deidara continued on out of the room, out in the courtyard he may or may not have visited last night. It didn't look like it, but it may have snowed again. He couldn't tell, and he hoped against hope that he it was the latter. Let him have this one thing as a gift.

He dusted off the bench and sat down, looking at the black ice of the frozen pond in front of him. The snow sparkled with the morning's sunlight, rosy and full of warm colors. Deidara felt chilled immediately. The snow was like a doll. It was only perfect so long as you didn't touch it, didn't harm it, didn't question how breakable and fragile it was.

Sasori had been a doll. He had been frail, and Deidara had broken him by waking up. Sasori had been a doll, and would always be a doll, now. Deidara couldn't even remember how warm his hands had felt. Everyone here was a doll.

Now that he was alone and could think, the artist wondered exactly how much of it had been a dream. Somehow he had to have wound up sleeping there, unless he'd just fallen asleep and they were too polite or too busy to kick him out. Hinata hadn't greeted him, however. She might have just been busy…

Deidara couldn't find Sasori, though, doll or not. That must have been a dream. All a dream, a delicate little dream, a doll's dream…

He idly drew in the snow again, just to see if he could restore the feeling in his body with the movement. He wasn't overly cold, but all of the snow around him gave him the impression that he was. He stood out, yet again, with his too-bright colors.

He didn't know how much time had passed before he finally went back inside, but it must have been at least an hour. Many more people were awake by now and were bustling around, exchanging gifts, eating breakfast, chatting casually. Deidara sullenly shoved his hands in his pockets, both to try to warm them (they felt so cold without Sasori's) and to keep people away. If you looked resilient, people wouldn't try to break you. That's why they were so attracted to dolls, because they were fragile, and people knew that. They liked the feeling of having that control over something.

So why had Deidara liked it when he was the doll, when he was being controlled by Sasori? Maybe he liked the roles switched like that. Or maybe he just liked it so he wouldn't have to think of Sasori as just a doll.

But all that was irrelevant now.

"Good morning, Deidara. Merry Christmas." Deidara looked up as he heard the words. Hinata was greeting him with a faint smile on her doll-like face. Her eyes were still glassy and her skin was porcelain white, but at least it was nice to know that it all hadn't been a dream.

"Merry Christmas, Hinata. Get any gifts you like, yeah?" he asked politely.

For the briefest moment, her eyes glittered like the snow outside. Deidara blinked; it must have been his imagination. She was a doll, after all. Dolls didn't look alive. "One or two…How about you?"

"I'm not sure yet, I haven't received them all, yeah," he said with a forced grin. She chuckled softly, putting her small hand to her mouth to cover it politely.

"I hope you appreciate the ones you do receive," she said sincerely. Even with her hair down and straightened, and most of her makeup either missing or smeared by sleep, she still looked as immaculate and innocent as a doll. Deidara just couldn't get that out of his head. For all intents and purposes, she was a doll. (Or a Snowflake.)

"I'll be sure to, yeah," he replied with a shrug. He was about to depart when someone else came up behind Hinata, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her against his chest. Deidara suddenly couldn't breathe. The black-haired boy kissed Hinata on the cheek, and then looked up at Deidara with a smirk.

"Merry Christmas," Sasuke said halfheartedly, more as a greeting than actually meaning it.

"Goodbye, Deidara. I hope the rest of your year is pleasant for you," Hinata waved goodbye, suddenly looking a lot less like a doll. She and Sasuke strolled off back towards the living room, leaving Deidara standing in the hall, still breathless.

Deidara ended up searching the whole mansion for the next two hours. He had come across several people he knew in that time, but none of them were the doll he was looking for. Ino and Sakura, dressed in matching pajamas, the two dancers, and even a sleepy-looking Itachi in one of the rooms. "Who are you looking for?" Ino asked, tilting her head to one side.

"You know who," was all Deidara replied, biting his bottom lip. Sakura leaned over and whispered something in Ino's ear, and then they both looked at the artist with bright smiles. They looked spirited, but still something was doll-like about them. Though even that melted away when he saw their fingers intertwined between them.

If you're a doll, what's the most logical thing for you do to? Find another doll, so you don't feel so fragile. Deidara continued his search fruitlessly, getting more and more desperate and frustrated as the time dragged on. Deidara had to find his doll. He had to.

Finally, after two long hours, he had to give up. Sasori simply just wasn't in the mansion. There was no way that he could have missed him. Dragging his feet, Deidara made his way to the front door, kicking his shoes back on. He opened the door, and turned back around one last time, hoping for a glimpse of scarlet.

Instead, someone grabbed his hand from outside and dragged him out into the sunlight. "It's about time you got out here. I was about to go in after you," a very familiar voice scolded. Deidara turned around with wide eyes, unable to believe it until he saw it.

Sasori was holding his hand again, shaking his finger at him with the other hand. His red hair was just as messed up as it had been with the crown. Scarlet locks fell just short of his eyes again, curling slightly at the tips, making his skin seem whiter than it was. His eyes were lidded with brows drawn, though they were still their familiar cinnamon color. Instead of a soldier's uniform or a prince's outfit, Sasori was wearing rumpled, slept-in formal attire, just like Deidara. The blond smiled uncertainly at him.

In a world where everyone was a doll, there was no one there to break you. You could only find another doll and pretend you both weren't so fragile. Porcelain dolls looked so nice together, after all.

Sasori's hand tightened on his own, and slowly his reprimand melted into a smile. "Oh, come on, you idiot. Let's go."

"Okay," Deidara said simply, letting himself be dragged off once more. He had his doll back.