Sculpting for Dummies

(Sorry for the long delay and the short chapter. I had two tests and a paper this week, and also spent the weekend goofing off at a convention. Hopefully the next few chapters will be out quickly for your reading pleasure.)

Oh, and latest episode of the anime (29-30): Naruto and his posse are jerks! Seriously, teaming up against poor Deidara, two, then four against one (and I thought team Gai had more honor than that!), all while Deidara doesn't have arms and can't defend themselves. I've lost all respect for the friggin' Konoha ninja. But the good news is, Tobi's gonna be showing up soon! Yay and yayness!

Chapter 11

Two weeks later, Tobi and Deidara's first customer appeared. Tobi heard a knock on the door, so he slid on his mask and let them inside. It was Lin's mother, carrying a plain-looking ceramic plate.

"Lin just dropped one of my plates this morning. Could you make me some replacements?" she asked. Tobi held up one finger and said, "I'll be right back."

He skipped down the hallway to Deidara's studio. The artist had locked himself in there earlier that morning to experiment with various glazes. He looked up sharply when Tobi flung open the door.

"Sempai, we have a customer! Come and see if you can help her out."

Deidara hesitated for a moment, but he wiped the clay off of his hands and followed Tobi back out.

"I need to see the piece, un," he told Lin's mother (really, he never asked anything, Tobi thought; it was pretty rude to act that way to customers), who handed him the plate. The blond examined it with his eyes and his hands, tracing his finger along the edges and inside the grooves.

He nodded to her. "I can make this plate, but I can't replicate the pattern, un." Lin's mother sighed.

"That's a shame. I'll just have to have mismatching plates."

Tobi eyed the simple floral pattern of the plate through the eye hole of his mask. "I could paint it," he offered. "I'm usually pretty good at copying things."

Deidara and the customer both looked at him, surprised. "That would be wonderful," Lin's mother told him.

"Whatever, un." Deidara retreated back into his studio with the plate, leaving Tobi to negotiate a price and a pick-up date for the replacement pieces. Maybe it was better that way… Sempai's people skills left something to be desired.

………………………………………………………………

"Tobi… you damned slave-driver…un," Deidara cursed. He shuffled into the shower and let the layers of wet, partially wet, and dried clay wash off his skin. The lumps of clay clumped up in the drain, but Deidara didn't care. Tobi (that idiot!) would just have to come clean it up, because it was his fault.

Deidara had only been trying to make a few replica plates. He'd made more than he needed, of course, because you never knew when one would get dropped or blow up in the kiln or somehow get destroyed. It had seemed like a shame to fire up the kiln half-empty, so he'd stayed up that night Lin's mother had come by, making spare plates and bowls and cups. There were probably three complete sets that survived the firing process, and a few odd dishes besides.

Tobi (that bastard!) had been the one to paint them up with designs he'd seen in a fancy catalog. He'd been the one to show them off to Lin's mother when she came by the studio to pick up her purchase. She couldn't resist buying one of the sets, because usually nice things were difficult to find in a small village like Thorn, with few professionals.

Once the customer bought the new dishes, she's shown them off to her friends at a get-together she'd planned. The next morning, the women of the village came in droves. The two other completed sets sold instantly, and Tobi (that worm!) took commission after commission to make more.

Deidara turned around underneath the shower's spray and let the water clean the spatters of clay out of his hair. Yes, there was clay in his hair, as well as on his face, his neck, and every bit of skin that hadn't been covered by his clothing. He had just spent the last two days barely sleeping, not eating, desperately turning out dish after dish. His hands were so cramped up they couldn't move without little spasms of pain.

Only now that the pieces were firing in the kiln could he get any rest. Once they finished firing, he'd have to go back and glaze them…. He made a mental note to slaughter a Tobi-doll when he finished his shower.

Deidara turned back around (there was a film of mud on the shower floor now that squished as he shifted) and let the warm water cascade over his chest. Damn, it felt good. And now that he was relatively clay-free, he could concentrate on his other problem, which he had been neglecting all day. The problem that was draining the blood out of his head and demanding attention.

It certainly wasn't the first time he'd become aroused while sculpting. What could he say? He found artistic talent (whether his own or someone else's) incredibly sexy. Usually, though, he had those convenient little tongues on his palms to help alleviate such tensions.

He reached down to grip his growing erection, but before he could give it more than a light squeeze, his hand protested. He ignored the pain and tried to go on, but his cramping muscles couldn't give him satisfaction.

Deidara turned the water off and stepped out of the shower. His hands hurt too much to even bother drying himself off properly, so he just wrapped a towel around him and staggered into his bedroom. He flopped down on his bed and groaned. He'd have to wait until his hands could function properly. Damned Tobi.

'Fuck him and his fucking seal and his fucking sales commission!' Deidara thought to himself.

…Fuck Tobi? That sounded….hmmm. Deidara wasn't above using the masked man for personal gain. It was Tobi's fault, after all.

……………………………………………………..

"Tobi! Get your ass in here now, un!" Tobi heard Deidara yell from his bedroom. Tobi marked his place in the book he'd been reading and went to see what the artist needed.

"Sempai, what can I…" Tobi walked through the bedroom door, and froze. His eyes widened. He thought he felt something dripping off his face, but he didn't know if it was drool, or blood from a nosebleed, or maybe just tears of joy.

Deidara was lying sprawled out on his bed, wet, naked, and aroused. Somehow, between walking out of his room, down the hall, and through Deidara's door, Tobi had stepped into some wonderful alternate dimension where dreams came true.

"This is your fault, Tobi, un," the blond told him. He didn't need to point or gesture for Tobi to understand what he meant.

His fault. His. Forget alternate dimension- this was Heaven! Deidara was naked and hard, looking at him with a burning, sultry gaze, and it was his fault. He'd done that to him. Tobi's knees buckled.

"So come over here and take some goddamned responsibility, un!" the artist growled. The ninja's legs were still doing their impersonation of jelly, but somehow he made it over to the bed.

"What should I do for you, sempai?" he asked. Oh, how many hours had he spent imagining what he could do for Deidara? Kiss every inch of his skin, run his fingers up and down his spine, caress that pale, tender skin of his thighs. Touch that swelling flesh between the blond's legs. What a bad boy he was becoming…

Deidara brought a hand to the back of his head. Tobi leaned in to kiss him, but his sempai pushed him down instead. Well, if Deidara wanted attention there, Tobi wouldn't deny him. He was amazed Deidara was allowing him to touch him.

The artist thrashed beneath him impatiently, but opportunities like this didn't present themselves to Tobi every day. He wanted to savor every second. The pale man kissed his way down Deidara's chest and licked a line across his stomach. The blond shuddered. Ticklish?

"Stop playing around, dumbass, un," Deidara ordered. Tobi ran the tips of his thumbs down the lines where Deidara's legs joined his body. He continued his line of kisses down from Deidara's belly button, until he was tantalizingly close to Deidara's erection. The blond's hips bucked.

Tobi smirked as he descended on Deidara with his mouth. The gasp the artist made, stunned and relieved at the same time, was too beautiful to describe with words. He twisted his tongue and had Deidara arching up underneath him, body begging for more. It wasn't nice to tease his sempai… but god damn, it felt good to be bad!

…………………………………………………………………..

Deidara was sobbing for breath when he finally thrust into Tobi's mouth and shuddered with release. (It wouldn't have taken so long if that moron had done what he was supposed to instead of toying with him; he'd punish him later, when his bones decided to stop being liquid again.)

While he was recovering, Tobi crawled up the length of his body and hovered over Deidara, weight balanced on his arms. The taller man pressed his lips against Deidara's. Tobi's tongue tasted like Deidara's seed. The artist wasn't repulsed by the taste, but he wasn't going to suck faces with Tobi while that flavor was there. He pushed Tobi away.

The idiot didn't seem upset that Deidara didn't want to kiss him. He just nuzzled a pale cheek against Deidara's flushed ones. His erection poked at Deidara's stomach, but Tobi didn't make any move for gratification. The artist couldn't figure out what was going on in Tobi's head, bringing Deidara off but not seeking any relief for himself. He must be planning something…

The dark haired man shifted a little and buried his face into Deidara's neck (if he left a mark, Deidara was going to kill him!). As he moved, his clothed cock brushed against Deidara's inner thigh.

"Don't even think about it, un," he mumbled. Tobi detached his mouth from Deidara's neck and asked, "Don't think about what, sempai?"

Tobi couldn't be that clueless. His penis was right there, ready to go, and he was pretending he didn't know what Deidara was talking about?

"About fucking me, un," the artist clarified. Shit, that was starting to sound appealing, though. It had been months since he'd had someone inside of him, and one blowjob wasn't going to ease all the tension that had build up.

"S-sempai…I-I would never… not without your permission…I-I mean…" Tobi stuttered. His normally pale face was bright red.

Well, if he was going to use Tobi, he might as well do it one hundred percent. It was just sex, after all. It didn't mean anything. He wrapped a bare leg around Tobi's waist.

……………………………………………………………

"Sempai!" Tobi yelped. "W-what are you doing?"

Deidara pulled him closer and licked his ear. "I mean it, Tobi. Don't get any…ideas, un." The artist tugged at Tobi's shirt, but it had too many buckles holding it on him for it to surrender that easily. Those slender hands slid down and started unbuttoning his pants instead.

What was going on? Just a moment ago, Deidara had just been lying there, letting Tobi lavish affection on him. He'd thought to himself, 'He's so easygoing now. I'll have to do this more often.' Then, all of a sudden, he was saying no to sex, but acting (oh god, Deidara was sliding his pants down to his knees!), acting like he wanted it. How, how had Deidara gotten Tobi's pants all the way off without unwrapping that leg from his waist?

"Sempai…do you want me to…?"

"No," Deidara confirmed as he divested Tobi of his underwear. The blond once again attacked the shirt, this time working the straps loose and freeing Tobi of its confines.

"But…" he couldn't have sex with Deidara if he said no. Why wouldn't the artist just say what he meant, instead of confusing Tobi so much?

"No buts," he arched up and his groin brushed against Tobi's, "you definitely can't fuck me."

Tobi wiggled against Deidara's grasp on him. "If you mean that, then maybe I should leave," he offered. He tried to stand up.

Deidara grabbed him and pulled him back down. "Leave and I'll fucking kill you, un," he growled. Then, as if nothing had just happened, he leaned forward and captured one of Tobi's fingers in his mouth and sucked.

"Sempai, I'm not going to sleep with you if you keep saying no," he protested. Deidara gave his finger a nip and released it.

"Just do it already, un."

Tobi stared at Deidara, unmoving, until the artist finally said, "I want you to do it, you bastard. Fuck me before I change my mind, un!"

Tobi smiled and gave Deidara a quick peck on the lips before breaking the blond's hold on his waist and leaping off of the bed.

"I'll be right back, sempai!" he called, and ran out of the room. He rifled through his belongings to find something to use as lubricant. Snatching up a bottle of oil from the kitchen, he ran back to Deidara. His sempai glared at him.

"Hurry the hell up, un," he ordered. Tobi kneeled between Deidara's legs and uncapped the bottle. He tried to recall everything Zetsu-san had told him about having sex (getting 'The Talk' from the human plant had been more than traumatizing at the time, but now that he needed a working knowledge of sexual practice, he was thanking his old mentor). He used the oil and started stretching Deidara carefully.

"Just do it already, un," Deidara hissed. But Zetsu-san had advised him not to be impatient. He'd said to go slowly at first.

"I don't want to hurt you, sempai," he told the blond, and continued his gentle ministrations. His erection was throbbing, but he had waited for years to make love to Deidara; he wasn't going to ruin it for the sake of a few minutes.

He kept preparing until he was certain Deidara was ready. He eased himself in with the same painstaking control. Deidara sighed.

"Faster," he ordered. Tobi pulled out and went back in slowly, deliberately. 'Not until I know you're ready,' he thought to himself.

He waited until he found the spot he was looking for and Deidara was distracted with pleasure before he increased his speed. Damn, it felt good. Up until now, he'd thought that the grinding together that they'd done in the basement of Hebi headquarters was the best thing he'd ever experienced. This, this was so much better. He and Deidara were joined together, and it was hard to think anything other than how wonderful it felt to be this close.

"Faster, harder," Deidara gasped. Tobi continued as he'd been doing, but snuck a hand onto Deidara's groin to divert his attention. He wanted to pound into him until he came, but more than that, he wanted Deidara to understand, though the act, that Tobi loved him, which wouldn't happen if Tobi left him torn up and aching. So he proceeded cautiously, from beginning to end. When he finished, he lay beside Deidara and used the blond's post-coital complacency to steal one final kiss. Then he wrapped his arm around his sempai's waist and fell asleep almost instantly.

………………………………………………………………

Deidara stayed awake long after Tobi had fallen asleep. He tried waking Tobi once to kick him out of the bed, but the taller man was dead to the world. Deidara couldn't fall asleep with him there, with his arms entrapping Deidara, and his scent encircling him, and his presence surrounding him. He'd never slept with someone after having sex with them, and he wasn't going to start now. Twisting out of Tobi's arms, Deidara stole out of the room and down the hall.

He thought at first that he might go to Tobi's room and sleep in the empty bed there. He decided against it. Tobi's bed would still smell like him, and Deidara had had enough of Tobi for the night. Besides, if Tobi woke up in the middle of the night and found Deidara lying in his bed, he'd have justification to join him. Instead of Tobi's bedroom, Deidara found himself wandering into his art studio. He sat down and took a deep breath.

It was easier to breathe here, without another person curling around him as if they were a honeymooning couple. Stupid Tobi was acting like they were lovers or something. They weren't. They'd just had sex. It didn't mean anything. It certainly didn't give Tobi permission to latch onto him like that.

Tobi had always been clingy, but it seemed worse now. It felt worse. Tobi's touch made Deidara feel nervous. He wasn't sure what would happen tomorrow. If it were up to Deidara, things wouldn't change (sex wasn't supposed to change things, after all; sex was just a means to an end). But Tobi might think differently. He had been pursing Deidara actively for over a year, and lusting after him since they'd met. When Deidara achieved a goal he'd been pursuing, he moved on and set a new goal. Would Tobi do that?

Now that he'd gotten what he'd wanted, what was stopping Tobi from leaving? There wasn't anything in Thorn Village that would keep him here. It was a hole-in-the-wall village, and what meaning did a house with an art studio have to Tobi, who wouldn't know art if it sucker-punched him? Tobi could just slip away in the night and go start a new life.

Deidara stood up, suddenly needing to know if Tobi was still in Deidara's room. He stopped himself. He didn't need to check. If Tobi left, Deidara wasn't going to be able to stop him. Everyone left eventually, and it was better for Deidara if Tobi did the leaving. Deidara needed this art studio, this home. Tobi could work as a ninja and make his way in the world, which Deidara couldn't do without his chakra. Besides, Deidara liked this place, hick as it was, and he wasn't going to be the one leave. But the deed for the property was in Tobi's name; he could, in theory, kick Deidara out.

It would be better if Deidara convinced Tobi to leave Thorn than to wait around until Tobi got bored with him and forced him out. Better to end it now, the sooner the better. It would hurt less that way.

Deidara decided that the next day, he'd start making Tobi want to leave. He didn't figure it'd be too hard, making the masked man miserable enough to want to leave.

A tiny part of him protested. Maybe Tobi wasn't finished with him. Maybe he'd wanted more than just sex. Deidara remembered that kiss Tobi had given him before he'd fallen asleep. The blond could write off every other kiss Tobi had given him as seduction attempts, but that final one didn't make sense. Deidara couldn't see a clear reason for that kiss. Tobi had already gotten the sex he'd wanted, and he hadn't tried to convince Deidara to do something else for him.

Deidara had never kissed anyone without some kind of motive. What did it mean when someone kissed without a reason? When Tobi had first become Deidara's partner, he had done things for him just because he 'liked him'. Deidara had thought 'liked' meant 'wanted to have sex with.' Had he been wrong? Maybe before he chased Tobi away, he should figure out Tobi's motivations for that kiss. But if he wasted too much time, he might lose his studio…

Deidara fell asleep curled up next to his potter's wheel, still debating with himself how to face Tobi in the morning.

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AN: Hopefully, the next chapter of the side story will be up in the next two to three days, and the next real chapter a couple days after that. Tobi's going to have such an eventful morning-after.

Poor confused Deidara doesn't know what to make of this. If you want to know more about why, that's why the side story's there.

Oh, and thanks to everyone who's been reviewing! It's great fun reading your feedback. It is for all of you that I am typing right now at 1:25 AM, when I should be sleeping so I can get up for morning classes.