Silver Lining

Chapter Two: Reunion

He watched her as she slept, the quiet rhythm of her breathing the only sound in the room. He leaned over in the chair he'd pulled up beside the bed, rested his elbows on his knees and tilted his head a little, still not quite believing what he was looking at. Or rather; who. He could only think of one reason why she would be in a place like this, and he could barely believe that either. Apparently the universe had a wicked sense of humor.

He reached out and carefully brushed the hair from her face so he could see her features better. Or maybe he just wanted to touch her again and confirm she was indeed real and here.

Her soft coral hair was different—still short but longer than before, brushing her collarbones. Her hitai-ate was gone, and that small detail told him a lot about the current version of the woman asleep on the bed. He guessed that like him, she still had it somewhere. Ninja didn't give up their hitai-ate. Ever. It was a symbol of what they were, even if they scratched it out and held no loyalty to the village whose icon was engraved on it. Her face was different as well, but that was to be expected after so many years. The roundness of a young girl barely out of childhood was gone, her soft angular features thinned out and elegant. She was a grown woman now, and far more beautiful than he remembered…but memories became clouded with time and pictures in the Bingo books never did anyone justice.

He took in the rest of her appearance, letting his eyes wander slowly over her figure, noticing with small amusement that she didn't seem to have gotten any taller. She still had the same preference in clothing; sleeveless shirt with a high collar that zipped in front, long fingerless gloves, formfitting shorts under a buckled apron he knew held medical supplies and other more sinister items. Knee-high leather boots that he'd secretly always thought were just about the sexiest accessory he'd ever seen a woman wear. Everything she wore was black, and he recalled her preference for dark colors that didn't clash with her bright hair.

There were small changes to her figure as well. In some places she was leaner, more toned, and at the same time in other places she was softer and rounder, more developed and feminine. But the change that interested him most he couldn't see yet, for her striking green eyes were still closed as she slept off the remnants of the drug she'd ingested. Did those eyes still burn with that inner fire? He knew something of what she'd been through, and that brought up another set of questions. What would she say when she woke up and saw him? What would she do?

It seemed he was about to find out, because she murmured softly and began to stir. He sat up and leaned back a little so she wouldn't try to break his face before she got her bearings. It had been almost two hours since he'd found her and brought her here. Whatever was in her system, there was a lot of it. He'd seen her from the air, stumbling along the road until she passed out behind that shop. At first he'd wondered if she was drunk, but when he'd landed and reached her she was out cold it was clear she'd been drugged. As always her healing abilities were amazing, and even while unconscious the filtering she set in motion before passing out had burned off the effects of the toxin in half the time it would take a normal person.

Sakura murmured again and shifted onto her back, her head falling to the side as she regained consciousness and her eyes cracked open slightly. The room was dim, the fading light of dusk through the window faintly illuminating her surroundings. This was definitely not where she'd passed out, but she felt no alarm at the moment; something in her subconscious told her there was no reason to be alarmed. However, she did sense another presence near her, and she opened her eyes a bit to try and make out the half-shadowed figure. An eerily familiar silhouette and long, pale blond hair were all her bleary eyes could make out. "Deidara…" she half-whispered at the unclear image.

The man gave a quiet huff of amusement and smirked at her subconscious recognition.

Then Sakura's eyes adjusted and her mind focused and she shot up in the bed in shock as she realized this was neither a dream nor a hallucination. "DEIDARA? !"

Deidara just grinned at her. He couldn't find anything cool or clever to say in such a surprising situation, so he settled for the only thing he could think of, "Sakura," and let his tone convey the rest.

She reached out as if to touch him and make sure he was really there, but then dropped her hand in her lap. She shook her head in bewilderment. "I…I heard you were dead…" she breathed in awe.

His grin softened a bit and he shrugged. "I heard that too. Looks like that rumor was a false one, yeah."

So many things were racing through her mind it was making her head spin. Or maybe it was just the drugs. But the main thing was that Deidara was here, in the same room with her after eight years of never thinking to see him again and despite reports that he was long dead. Her heart did a little flip when she heard that casually mumbled 'yeah' from his lips. Sakura was overwhelmed by relief and a jumble of other things she couldn't name. She had mourned for him. Despite the war, despite everything, when she heard he was dead she had cried in private. But he wasn't dead; he was here!

She threw herself at him, flinging her arms around his shoulders. "I'm so glad you're alive!"

She was squeezing so hard he could barely breathe, but Deidara didn't care. He returned the embrace nearly as tightly and gave a short, breathless laugh. "So am I, yeah. And I'm happy to see you too."

Sakura hugged him tighter, but when he emitted a small cough she sheepishly let go. She looked around to see she was in what appeared to be a cheap hotel room. A few things clicked in her still-fuzzy brain and she sat back and looked at him in confusion. "You brought me here?"

He nodded. "I saw you from the air, but by the time I got to you, you were already passed out, yeah. What the hell did you take?"

She recalled the large shadow passing over her and realized it must have been him on his bird. And then the sound…and she thought she saw… Her thoughts were still a bit clouded, but her expression darkened at his question. "Fucking bartender in the local tavern drugged me and sent some guys after me. It's not hard to guess why."

Something flickered across his expression briefly, but it soon vanished. "I don't remember you being that careless."

She gave him a look, but she couldn't be mad because he was right. "I've had a bad day," she muttered sourly.

Deidara smirked at her petulance. "Hm. It could've been worse, yeah. You're probably lucky I'm the one that found you."

She nodded sullenly. "But…what are you doing here anyway?"

His smirk turned mischievous. "I'm on a mission."

Sakura stared at him a moment, and then it dawned on her. "You…no way…You're my partner? !"

"Looks that way, yeah."

She shook her head, wide-eyed. "I can't believe it. What are the odds?"

He gave a small shrug. "Maybe it's fate."

Sakura studied him a long moment, taking in his appearance. He didn't look much different; slightly older though still youthful, his fine-boned features more defined. His hair was still long, half of it tied back in a topknot, but his hitai-ate was gone. A long, thin scar ran from his earlobe along and under his jaw, stopping just below his chin. He wore a dark v-neck shirt with a mesh tank underneath, and black pants that were tucked into dark grey leg guards over black boots.

On the whole he looked better, and seemed happier than she remembered. But Sakura knew he was a rebel and a free spirit, and she supposed being tied to a group like Akatsuki had weighed upon him quite a bit.

The cloak and ring were gone, of course—he wasn't Akatsuki anymore. There was no Akatsuki anymore. But as they regarded each other she couldn't help but think it; that's exactly what he had been. Akatsuki. The organization responsible for the destruction of her home, the ruin of shinobi society, and the loss of everything and everyone she ever loved. But this was Deidara in front of her. This was her friend. What happened wasn't his decision or his doing, and it wasn't fair to make him a scapegoat just because he was the only one left. Though he still wasn't blameless. It was Akatsuki's overambitious goal to control the bijuu that eventually led to all that destruction and chaos, and he had been an active part of that early process. But he wasn't even there during the war; he had already been declared dead.

Her thoughts about him were confused and racing in circles, her feelings swinging back and forth between the Akatsuki member and her friend from long ago. They were really one in the same, weren't they? But how could she hate Deidara?

That's when Deidara saw it; the hardness in her eyes that spoke of everything she'd been through. It was exactly what he hadn't wanted to see in those once-bright depths. That fire he so admired was still there behind the wall, but it was dim and dying, suffocating under the weight of her sorrow. He hated that. She was looking at him like she didn't quite know what to make of him, and he knew why.

This tense awkwardness wasn't how Sakura wanted her unexpected reunion with Deidara to go, so she gave him a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes and decided to let it go. For now. Someday they would have to talk about it, because she needed to hear it from him. What 'it' was, she didn't know. Just something, anything to explain and shine a clear light on her mixed up feelings.

Mixed feelings or not, she was happy he was alive, and she wouldn't deny she was very glad to see him again. He was the only person she cared about who was still alive, though she hadn't known that until ten minutes ago. Now he was back in her life and somehow she didn't feel so alone anymore.

They continued to stare at each other, neither one really knowing what to say next. It was starting to get uncomfortable.

Deidara could see that she had a lot of questions but was reluctant to go there. He couldn't help but feel a little relieved by that, so he went along with keeping things lighthearted for now. "I guess now that you're awake we should go over the mission details, yeah," he offered casually.

Sakura nodded. "I still can't believe you're my partner for this." Then it dawned on her exactly what that entailed. Their cover was as newlyweds. She was going to be playing the part of the adoring bride…to Deidara. Could this get any weirder? They hadn't seen each other in eight years, and now they were thrown together again in the most unlikely situation. They had to get used to each other all over again, and they had to do it while pretending to be a couple in love.

This mission just got a lot more complicated. Sakura couldn't help but think it may have been easier if her partner had been a creepy stranger after all.

Deidara was thinking something similar, and the silence stretched again.

They were saved when her empty stomach growled loudly. Deidara laughed, and Sakura frowned as she held her arms over her stomach. "I haven't eaten today," she explained sheepishly.

He smirked and stood up. "Let's talk about the job over dinner then."

She got off the bed and stretched her legs a little, and then followed him out the door.

Sakura scraped the last morsel of food over her plate and onto her fork, and then shoved it into her mouth. Deidara sat across from her, watching with amusement as she gorged herself. They hadn't talked about anything specific since leaving the hotel and finding this small café. Evidently she was too hungry to manage a conversation while eating. It reminded him of the first time they'd ever really talked—in the kitchen of his family home while she'd stuffed her face with shrimp tempura.

"So, Yotsuba…" she began, swallowing and washing it down with her icewater. "He said he gave you the reservation info and other details?"

Deidara nodded. "He also gave me quite a bit of pocket money, even though this resort's supposedly all inclusive. I guess he figured we might need it for something, yeah." He reached into his pocket, withdrew some folded paperwork and passed it to her. "That's the reservation and the cover. We check in tomorrow night at seven, and the exhibition is next weekend. He left it to us to figure out the execution."

She looked over the documents, scanning the reservation and their cover names and stories. "Yamada…Tarou and Ayame. That's a bit too generic to really avoid all suspicion," she remarked, glancing up at him.

He shrugged. "A little, but some people do have boring generic names. I doubt it will make a difference."

"I guess. Figures that even undercover I can't escape being a flower," she said wryly.

"Being a flower suits you."

Sakura looked up at him, not sure exactly where he was coming from with that comment. He had always been like that; speaking his mind in such a frank way that it was sometimes hard to figure out what context he intended, or if his words meant more than simple observation.

"Though I think you're more like nightshade than a cherry blossom, yeah," he added with a smirk.

She huffed indignantly, recalling the long list of severely unpleasant effects that plant had on people, including rashes, intestinal problems, and death. "Oh, thanks. What exactly are you implying?"

"Well, the flowers are unique and pretty and the berries are sweet, it has hallucinogenic properties and you're good with genjutsu, and it even has medicinal purposes. But if you don't understand the nature of it, if you underestimate its potential or handle it carelessly, it can seriously fuck you up."

Sakura had to smile a little. As strange as the context was, it was probably the most thorough and well-rounded compliment anyone had ever paid her. She shook her head amusedly. "You and your metaphors."

"I can't help it if I'm clever and think in artistic ways, yeah."

She smiled at his playful arrogance, and continued perusing the papers he'd given her. Inside the resort brochure was a flyer for the black-tie exhibition being held next weekend—the night they would steal one of the showcased items. "So we're supposed to just sit around the whole week before the exhibition and what, work on our tans?"

"I guess so. It'll probably only take a couple days to figure out how to steal it, so the rest of the time I guess we kick back and maintain our cover. It seems more like a vacation than a mission, yeah."

Sakura nodded and read through the pamphlet, frowning a little at the pictures. It was typical advertising for a tropical resort: white sand and clear turquoise waters, snorkeling with colorful fish, attractive couples embracing on a beach at sunset. Deidara's comment about vacations reminded her of what Yotsuba teased her about when she accepted the mission. The glossy images in the brochure reinforced that idea, and she forced herself to switch gears before she thought too much about the implications.

"Yotsuba's sure going to a lot of trouble and expense for one antique sword, don't you think? This cover of ours has got to be expensive, and he's paying us a lot of money for a job that seems so simple. And then there's the fact that he's a former shinobi…"

Deidara nodded. "I thought the same thing, yeah. But he's not really going to that much trouble if you think about the fact that it would probably cost him a hell of a lot more buy the thing from our target than to pay us to steal it, even with the extravagant side expenses. And as far as him being a former shinobi, well, I'm sure you noticed he's not a very powerful one. He's not like you and me, who can make a good living as a ninja. He probably retired a long time ago to try and make more money as a businessman."

"You're probably right, and I'm just overthinking like usual. But still, we should keep our eyes open," she warned casually, handing the paperwork back to him.

Deidara took the papers and put them away, giving her a pointed look. "Who do you think you're talking to, hm?"

It was true. Deidara was probably better at watching his back than Sakura was at watching hers. She tilted her head and regarded him curiously. "You were declared dead over six years ago, Deidara. How is it you're still alive? What happened between then and now?" she asked quietly.

Deidara took a moment to answer, deciding what to tell her and how to say it. Not that he had any secrets, he just didn't want it to get awkward again. "When the sealing jutsu failed and the statue broke, I wasn't there. I was on a scouting mission. I heard about the demons getting loose and went back to find out what happened…but there was nothing left of that place. They totally destroyed it, and everyone was gone."

Sakura could only imagine the chaos and destruction of eight gigantic, enraged primordial demons suddenly set loose together in a single enclosed space. "What about…Kisame? Do you know what happened to him?"

He gave a small laugh. "Kisame was with me, yeah. You knew the Akatsuki members always traveled and did missions in pairs."

She blinked in surprise. "So he became your partner…after?"

"After we both lost our previous ones? Of course he did. I thought you would have known that."

She really should have guessed. "So he's alive now?" she asked hopefully.

Deidara snorted amusedly. "Oh yeah. That old trout's got more lives than a cat. When we saw what happened, we weren't sure what to do from there so we laid low. We heard a few weeks later that Akatsuki was broken and everyone was reported dead. I thought about it for a few days and decided I wasn't going to try and find anyone else. I was done. Things in the end got totally out of control and went to shit. The statue wasn't the only thing that was unstable in the last few months—there were problems internally as well, yeah. We always knew Pein was a madman, but it was always in a controlled and calculating way, you know? And that was okay with us because, hell, it's not like the rest of us are entirely sane."

She had to laugh a little at that. "I couldn't have put it better myself."

He smirked and continued. "Anyway, Pein didn't like failure and things started to get really intense and unpleasant, if you know what I mean. Even Konan had a hard time dealing with him sometimes. When the war started, Kisame and I both felt a little wary about the way things were going, yeah."

"Wasn't Akatsuki's goal to gain world domination through a monopoly on warfare?" she cut in pointedly.

He frowned at her interruption, but let it go. She had a right to be angry about this particular subject. "Yes, but the original intention was to do it through political manipulation—taking down the village governments one by one, pulling the strings from outside, using the power gained through the bijuu to influence things. That's not what we were doing in the end. Pein started a world war not to take over the shinobi nations, but to wipe them out completely. He thought that if the world couldn't be the way he wanted it, then the world should end. I may be a killer, and I may be a bad person and a villain, but that level of evil wasn't something I was comfortable with, yeah."

Sakura regarded him thoughtfully. "I get it. And you're not a bad person, Deirara. I never really thought you were a true villain. You're more of an antihero." She smirked.

He laughed quietly. "Maybe. The thing is…you know I was forced into joining Akatsuki. I didn't want to belong to any sort of establishment, but I didn't have a choice. And the only way out is to die, yeah. So when it became widely believed that I was dead, I decided to let everyone keep thinking that and go my own way. I knew Pein wasn't dead; he wasn't even there when the demons broke loose. Kisame and I left just before it happened, but Pein broke contact before that. He didn't know we were already gone when the jutsu failed, that we survived. I told Kisame I wasn't going back to participate in that insane vengeance again, and he made the same decision. So we disappeared for a while…but we still heard about things happening in the shinobi world." He studied her a moment. "I heard you killed Konan, for example."

Sakura gave a faint nod. "I did, but not alone. She was very powerful."

"Just like you thought she would be, yeah."

"I'm surprised you remember that conversation."

"Of course I do. It eventually turned into a pretty big argument. I wouldn't forget calling you a hypocritical bitch." He grinned.

"And I called you a sadistic lunatic," she added, remembering that night with a strange sort of fondness.

He nodded. "And we were both wrong."

"I was wrong. You were exactly right."

"Not really. You weren't a hypocrite. You just didn't know differently back then."

Sakura didn't have an answer for him, at least not one she wanted to voice aloud. She wasn't so sure he was right. Wasn't she being a hypocrite right this minute? He had been Akatsuki, yet she couldn't hold anger toward him simply because he was Deidara and he had always been good to her. If it had been another member, one she had no history with, she would have driven her fist through his skull, not be sitting here reminiscing about old times and feeling more relaxed and pleasant than she had in a very long time. But she didn't want to bring any of that up, so she turned the conversation to the only other Akatsuki she wouldn't try to kill on sight. "So where is Kisame now?"

Deidara knew she'd deliberately changed the subject, but he let it go. He seemed to do that a lot with her. Some irritating person might try to tell him it was guilt. Thankfully there were no irritating shark-men around at the moment. "The old bastard retired from shinobi life, yeah. He said he was tired of sticking his neck out for shit he didn't care about and he planned to find somewhere near water to get drunk and fish for the rest of his life."

Sakura gave a small dry laugh. "Now there's something I never would have thought about him. Except maybe the drunk part. When's the last time you saw him?"

"Ehh…a little over a year ago I think." She seemed surprised it was so recent, and he elaborated. "Well we both stayed there while we were lying low, yeah. I still go back every once in a while."

She raised an eyebrow. "Where's 'there?' And why did you leave?"

"'There' is a small rural island south of Mist, and I left after a couple years because I got bored sitting in one place and doing nothing. It's fine for an old man, but I needed some excitement. So I went back to working independently, yeah."

Sakura smiled. "That doesn't surprise me. I am a bit surprised Kisame would settle so close to Mist, considering he's a missing-nin. If they ever find out he's alive they'll be all over him."

"Nobody looks for missing-nin anymore unless they have a personal grudge or are on some glory trip. It's the same for everyone in the Bingo books. You should know, yeah."

"Oh I do. But he's not just some missing-nin, he's Hoshigake Kisame. He's probably the most wanted missing-nin in Mist's entire history. They may make an exception for him."

He gave a conceding nod. "Maybe. If it happens, it happens, yeah. He doesn't worry about it, so neither should we." He noticed her appraising him with a faint smile. "What?"

"You two became friends after all."

"That surprises you?"

"Kind of."

He shrugged. "We went through a lot of shit together as partners. I told you things got ugly in Akatsuki at the end. Besides, I didn't really know him back when we took you. Let's just say that even within a group as small as Akatsuki there were…cliques."

Sakura nodded, understanding his meaning. She knew a large part of it had to do with Deidara and Itachi disliking each other, naturally leaving Kisame – Itachi's partner – off the list of potential buddies. Once upon a time they'd all been a forced and surreal, but ultimately cherished part of her life. She hadn't thought about Itachi in a while, but her memories of their brief but profound relationship were always fond ones, and to this day she was grateful for the things he'd taught her, for knowing a part of him no one else ever had.

Deidara noticed her nostalgic expression and smiled a little, knowing she was remembering her time with them and that those memories were pleasant for her. "Hey…maybe after this job is done I'll take you to see the old man. If you want."

She looked up at him in surprise, then her features softened and she nodded. "I'd like that."

The activity on the street outside the café had grown quiet as the locals went home for the night. They had been here talking for so long they were the only patrons left in the place. "Looks like they're gonna close up soon. We should head back, yeah."

They paid the bill with Yotsuba's pocket money and left.

Back in the motel room, Sakura stripped down to her shorts and shirt, but it wasn't until Deidara took his shirt off leaving only the mesh tank underneath that the reality of the situation hit her.

Strangely, she found herself staring at his arms and shoulders and thinking his muscles were a lot more defined than she remembered. Well, duh. He was a ninja, what did she expect? They all had nice physiques. Especially the men, and some were built better than others.

Deidara had noticed her watching him. Mentally slapping herself, she self-consciously focused her gaze elsewhere.

He seemed to share some of the awkwardness she was feeling. "You can have the bed, yeah. I'll just uh…" he muttered, gesturing to the floor.

Sakura huffed ironically, remembering a time she'd been in a similar situation, when she had been forced to share a bed with Itachi. And look how we ended up after that. She also remembered thinking at the time that she would rather have shared the room with Deidara since she was more comfortable with him. How perfectly ironic this was. The universe was one sadistic bastard.

"No, it's okay," she said. "I mean were going to have to get used to it right? We can't do something like that once we get to the resort, so… I mean it's not a big deal… It's not like we haven't slept close together before."

Eight years ago. Fully clothed and wearing heavy cloaks. In a cold, damp cave with a bunch of other people.

"Right," he replied casually, but a bit too quickly to pull it off.

Sakura stole covert glances at him as he moved about the room, focusing on the heavy scarring on the lower half of his left arm and the very noticeable one that encircled his right bicep where his arm had been reattached. She knew how he had gotten them, and it was entirely too obvious that they weren't normal scars that could be explained away as some random accident. At first glance he looked like a regular man, but those scars gave him away as a ninja or other military type, and that would not do for their cover. "Um…I should do something about those scars on your arms. Maybe try to erase them or at least fade them out a little."

Deidara glanced over at her with a small frown. "Why? I've had them for so long I don't even notice them anymore. Do they bother you or something?"

Now it was Sakura's turn to frown. "That's a stupid thing to think about me, Deidara," she reproved pointedly. "I'm a medic, and I'm a ninja. I've seen a lot worse. It's just that were going to a beach resort, and I don't think you'll be able to get away with wearing long-sleeved shirts all the time. Those scars give you away as a fighter of some sort, and we can't have anything make us look suspicious."

He looked slightly contrite at her explanation. "Alright. You want to do it now?"

She nodded and motioned for him to sit with her on the bed. He did, the springs creaking slightly with the added weight, and crossed his legs under him. She sat the same way at an angle to him and took hold of his left arm first, examining it a moment before flooding her hands with chakra and setting to work.

It was quiet for a few minutes, and when Deidara looked at her he could tell by the set of her features that she was unhappy with something. "What's wrong?"

She glanced up at him in a brief glare, but didn't answer right away, focusing on her task until he began to wonder if she planned to ignore him. "It's just…what you said about your scars bothering me…" She sighed irritably. "I may have been that shallow when I was a little girl, but that was a long time ago, and–"

"I didn't mean it like that. I just meant…well, I don't know what I meant. But I don't think of you like that at all, okay? Sorry," he muttered. He felt like an ass now, something he wasn't used to. But it really had been a stupid thing to say; she was one of the most nonjudgmental people he'd ever known.

Sakura looked up and met his gaze. "Don't worry about it." Her chakra stopped and she tapped his arm. "Next."

Deidara looked down at his forearm and blinked in surprise. The worst of the scars from his battle with the Kazekage were now faded and smooth, unnoticeable unless you were looking up close. The lighter ones were completely gone. "Damn," he said, impressed. He absently lifted his right arm toward her as he stared at his left, and she scooted around his front to get a better position for that arm. That hadn't taken long at all. She really was something else.

The other arm took longer even though there was only one major scar. Sakura couldn't erase it, but when she was finished it was much paler and thinner and not as blatantly conspicuous as before. "Sorry, I can't get this one to fade completely; it's too thick and the scar tissue runs completely through."

He shrugged. They hadn't really bothered him all that much, but he couldn't help but be pleased with her results. "That's okay. It looks a lot better than it did. Maybe I'll get a tattoo to cover it or something."

"That's a good idea, actually. But speaking of tattoos…" She looked at his left shoulder, at the long-faded ANBU tattoo. "Anyone who's a ninja or has worked with ninja will know what this is, but…"

"Just do it, yeah."

She glanced at him skeptically. "You sure? I mean it's sort of significant…"

"Not to me. I cut those ties a long time ago. It's nothing but faded ink. Go ahead."

Sakura stared at him uncertainly for another moment, then nodded. She got up and walked into the bathroom, wetted a hand towel in the sink and came back. Focusing her chakra, she slowly pushed the old ink to the surface of his skin and out through his pores, using the towel to wipe the ink away, repeating the process until the skin was unmarked and smooth.

Deidara studied her handiwork and made an amused sound, then glanced up at her, noticing her drawn features and bloodshot eyes. "You look pretty tired, yeah."

She nodded wearily. "I'm exhausted. Nothing like walking all day through a jungle in hundred degree heat, ingesting the equivalent of a horse tranquilizer, passing out in a filthy back alley, and then waking up to see an old friend you thought was dead to wear a girl out."

He gave her a crooked, boyish grin, one that reminded her of happier times long ago. "I still can't believe we met again like this," she said softly.

"Me neither." He stood up with the ink-stained towel and turned toward the bathroom. He paused and looked at her as she crawled under the covers on the far side of the bed. "But I'm glad."

She gazed at him sleepily. "Me too."

Deidara tossed the wet cloth into the bathroom sink and finished his business. He came out and hesitantly got into 'his' side of the bed, making sure to leave a good deal of space between them, though the bed wasn't very large. Hearing her soft breathing, he glanced over at her and then smiled; she was already asleep. He turned on his side with his back to her and lay there, remembering the past and thinking about fate until he too drifted to sleep.