I do not own Naruto or any of the characters. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.
It was dark outside and Deidara could see the large silvery moon out of his window. Despite the rough start to the day, ever since Sasori had returned, it had been a rather good day for the sculptor. Thanks to the throat lozenges and the continuous supply of water, his throat didn't feel nearly as bad as it had done earlier. Also, his temperature had finally come down and he'd stopped having cold chills. All in all, he felt like he would soon be back to his usual self, which he actually thought was a pity because this had been one of the most relaxing days of his life.
Sasori, who had been emptying Deidara's bin, returned with the empty bin in one hand and a fresh box of tissues in the other; Deidara's fever may have gone down but his nose had got more and more blocked as the day went on.
'Here, these should last you until tomorrow,' Sasori said, putting the tissues on Deidara's bedside table. 'I must say, you're looking a lot better. You're cough's lightened up, as well.'
'It's thanks to you, Sasori no Danna, hmn,' Deidara replied, a small smile playing at the corners of his lips.
'Anything else you need?' Sasori asked, an even smaller smile flickering across his face.
The sculptor shook his head. Sasori sat down at the foot of Deidara's bed, watching the blonde as he picked up one a half empty water bottle and proceeded to drain the contents. He was glad to see that the bomber had greatly improved since earlier; he didn't want to admit it but he had been very worried about Deidara when he had returned from his mission to find the blonde ninja in such a state.
'Hm? What's from?' Deidara asked, noticing Sasori's lingering gaze.
'Nothing,' Sasori said, quietly. 'I'm just glad you're feeling better.'
'You're going soft, Danna, hmn,' Deidara teased, grinning at the older artist.
'I hardly think you're in a position to say that, Deidara,' Sasori replied, cooly, 'you've done nothing but thank me all day.'
'And you've done nothing but be kind, pleasant, and wait on me all day, hmn,' Deidara countered.
'Don't push your luck, I might not be so nice tomorrow,' Sasori threatened, jokingly.
Deidara's chuckle soon turned into a wide yawn. Sasori stood up and made his way to the window, shutting it and drawing the curtains.
'It's getting late and you need your rest,' Sasori said. 'What do you say we call it a night?'
Deidara nodded and laid down, turning onto his side to face Sasori as the older ninja turned off the light, pulled off his Akatsuki robe, hung it up, and got into his own bed.
'If you need anything in the night, just wake me up,' the puppeteer said.
Deidara nodded and shut his eyes, quickly falling into a peaceful sleep.
...
The next day, Deidara was practically back to his old self; his throat no longer hurt, his body had stopped aching, and his cough was almost non-existant. To be on the safe side, however, he remained in quarantine and Sasori continued to do his bidding, though grantedly not as much as before. Deidara had definately got his appetite back and didn't have any problem keeping his food down, which was a great relief to everybody. However, the Iwagakure ninja was now finding it quite boring being cooped up in his room all day, and he was feeling quite grungy from laying in bed all the day before, particularly since he had been sweating from his fever for most of the day.
To relieve Deidara of his boredome, Sasori allowed him to create very small clay bombs and detonate them, on the condition that Deidara had to promise not to damage anything and not to make anything bigger than a bee. Deidara agreed to these demands and had a rather fun time creating his artwork in miniature form before watching it's tiny explosion in midair.
Dealing with Deidara's general feeling of grubbiness was also an easy task, they just had to wait for everyone else to have their daily baths so that Sasori could then clean the bathroom after Deidara was done to prevent contaminating the bathroom. Deidara was, once again, very grateful for the amount of work that Sasori was doing on his behalf.
The next day, everyone was satisfied that Deidara was no longer contagious and the bomber was allowed out of his room again. However, once he was out he rather wished that he was back in again, thanks to Tobi's idiotic behaviour.
'Senpai, I was thinking that I could go to Orochimaru's place and steal his ring, that way I could be a proper member of the Akatsuki,' the annoying masked ninja clamoured. 'What do you think? What do you think?'
'I think that if you try that, Orochimaru will probably kill you, hmn,' Deidara replied, before a thought struck him. 'I think yo should do it, Tobi.'
'Now, now, Deidara,' Zetsu scolded, playfully. 'Don't say mean things like that, Tobi is a good boy.'
'Tobi's a stupid kid,' Deidara corrected.
'Looks like everything's back to normal, then,' Sasori murmured.
And, with this, the story ends. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and favourited. I hope you enjoyed this last chapter.