County Fair
By Magewriter/Sheelos-lover
Chapter 5: Life Goes On
Disclaimer: All characters and places belong to Masashi Kishimoto
…So, I just got finished reading Twilight. I find it amazing that I'm not ranting about it right now… I'll try not to let it interfere with my fanfiction too much, though!
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In the morning, the women woke around sunrise. It would still be a good deal of time until anyone else in the commune woke up, much less actually felt motivated to move. Ritonno, however, donned long pants and a jacket and went for a few miles' run while Seiya made a pot of coffee.
By the time Ritonno was back, Tobi was upstairs, kicked out of Zetsu's room. He was telling Seiya his problems. "…But then he said that he never wanted to see me again! …And the white one said it, too!"
"Tobi… um…"
"So let them live with that." Seiya's head perked up and Tobi turned around. "Why not try staying out of their lives for awhile and seeing how they like that. Is there anyone else who you think would let you stay with them?"
Tobi considered for a moment, going through every male Akatsuki member. "No. Definitely not."
"Even Rei-san? It wouldn't be hard – probably just doing the petty little chores that I usually do."
"Um… but wouldn't it be too imposing to ask? …I mean, he's our leader!"
"I could talk to him… I'm pretty sure he wouldn't mind, once he got used to it."
"Um… Then I wouldn't know how to repay you, though…"
"It would be a favor. Don't think too hard on it. Who knows? Maybe Zetsu will like the change and Leader-san will like having an assistant and you'll end up with a promotion of sorts."
"Thank you so much, Ritonno-san!" Tobi stood up and turned around, all so that he could bow deeply to Ritonno. It made her feel uncomfortable.
"Um… but I haven't even done anything yet!"
"I know… but, you said you'd try!"
"Um… yeah, but, see, I have this thing… It makes me feel really weird to be on top when I didn't ask for it, so… please don't bow like that, Tobi. It's really uncomfortable… I mean, especially considering that you're nine years older than I am."
"You're a better ninja than I'll ever be, though!"
"Nah. I'm sure you'll be a great one someday. Most of the people who suck at fighting arts just decided to give up at some point. I can't see you doing that…"
Before Tobi or Seiya could say anything in response, they heard a door slam so hard that the frame shuddered. Even worse, the noise came from the attic. It sent a chill through all three of their spines and they shivered simultaneously.
Ritonno turned invisible and slipped away. Seiya and Tobi weren't lucky enough to know how to become invisible, so they followed Ritonno without meaning to, hoping to get away before Leader was down the first flight of stairs from the attic.
He caught them running, though. "Is something the problem?" He had the same, nearly-expressionless mask that he always had when he was angry. His words were precise, well-thought-out. "You wouldn't happen to be running from me, now, would you?"
"Um, no! I was just following Ritonno because she said I could borrow some of her books, and To-chan here was going down to check on Zetsu."
"Okay, then… Do whatever. I don't care." Leader had a strange spectrum of emotions when he was angry, all the way from insanely mad to seemingly uncaring to calmly coming up with the best "cause of death" possible for his foes, and he could be swayed by any statement.
Seiya and Tobi made their way to Ritonno's room, where they discussed Tobi's future plans. Unexpectedly, they heard a ceramic cup shatter and Leader swearing, so Ritonno went up to check on him. By the time she was upstairs, he was running water over his cut hand. He seemed to be even less social than before, so she picked up some of the larger pieces of the cup and mopped up the remaining tea (catching ceramic fragments with it) in a paper towel while Leader went to the bathroom, where they kept the first aid kit.
Whatever he was mad about, it was bad enough that he had unintentionally squeezed a strong ceramic teacup to the breaking point. It was bad.
She went back down to her room and did her best to imagine that Leader didn't exist, that he couldn't affect her through anger or anything else because he was fictional, or on the other side of the world, or something like that.
Then he came downstairs.
"Ritonno, I would like to talk to you in the attic."
If Ritonno could see herself from the outside, she guessed that her face would have gone a bit pale as she followed Leader up the two flights of stairs to his room, which took up the entire attic. The only reason she wasn't completely green was that she was a very good actress.
He slid the door shut behind her. When he spoke next, he sounded more nervous than angry. "What do I do now?"
"What?"
"Last night… You seemed a bit upset about something. And… it's been bugging me. I want to know what it was." He began pacing, obviously very upset, but Ritonno was glad that his frustration wasn't directed at her.
"Wait. You got into that whole mood and you broke a cup because I wasn't acting normal last night?"
"I was… worried." He admitted, blushing a bit but pretending that he wasn't.
"Listen. You didn't do anything wrong, okay? It was nice. You were there, holding my hand; Deidara and Seiya stayed nice and quiet; the movie was good…"
"…But you still seemed discontent."
Oh, God. She thought. How do I ever tell him that it was just a stupid reason?
"It really… it wasn't anything."
"Really? Are you sure?"
"Yeah. It was completely trivial."
"…But still existent? Please, tell me what I did wrong."
"Um… you haven't had many girlfriends before, have you? That's not the sort of thing you're really supposed to ask."
"…But… Okay, then. Let's take a different perspective. What would you want your boyfriend to do if you were viewing a movie on the couch in your living room."
"I'd want him to hug me…"
Oh, God. I just told him, didn't I? Stay composed, Ritonno, pretend that you didn't just make a stupid mistake…
"Really? …Is that what I did wrong, then?"
"Um… Couldn't you talk to Seiya about this? It's sort of… awkward, us being together and all…"
"Oh, you're right. Of course you're right. Um, you can go now. I'll talk to Seiya…" He had an entirely different attitude around her. He acted nervous, sweet, and strangely inexperienced. During her time in the Akatsuki, she had decided that, since he obviously knew much more than her about the Akatsuki and fighting in general, she should follow his orders. Now, it seemed that the tables were turned, and it felt completely awkward…
Turning around to get on the stairs that led to the bottom floor, she heard Deidara's voice behind her. "Ritonno-san! Um, can we talk for a few minutes, please, yeah?" He was blushing slightly.
"Sure. What about?"
"Um… I'll tell you when we get to my room, yeah. Or your room; whichever. I just don't want Seiya-chan to hear, yeah…"
"Oh."
"Yeah, yeah." They were in his room by then. "…So, what can I do to make her feel special, yeah? I have no idea!"
"…Well, she seemed pretty happy last night."
"I know, but I want to make her happier than anything, yeah!"
"…Well, that's not really the point, is it?"
He looked at her in a desperate way, grasping anything he could that would lead him to a better understanding of Seiya.
"The point isn't to make one person feel special; it's to be happy that you're together and enjoy the moment as much as possible. If you're having a good time with her, then I can guarantee you that she's going to be enjoying herself with you." She smiled at him. It seemed that men had no clue about relationships, at least in the Akatsuki commune.
"Um… I guess I'll think about that, then… Thank you, yeah!" He still didn't look convinced, but she was certain that he would think about what she had said.
"No problem. Rei-kun is talking to Seiya right now…" Seeing the look on his face, she rushed to add, "Not that kind of a talk – she's not getting thrown out or anything – he's just completely useless when it comes to romance."
"I sort of noticed, yeah."
"Yeah. So, he's talking to Sei-chan. Is that all you wanted to ask me, Dei-kun?"
"Whatever happened to 'chan', yeah?"
"That faded out when I got together with Rei-kun. Don't worry; we're still close!"
"Nice to know, yeah."
"Okay, then…. Bye!"
"Bye, Ritonno…. Um… kun, yeah!"
"Bye, Dei-kun!" She left, shutting he door behind her. She waited in her room for Seiya, passing through the kitchen to get some PMS-grade chocolate even though she didn't need it for the usual reason.
She made this trip invisibly and quietly. Kisame and Itachi were in the next room, and it was Itachi who spoke.
"Do you want to know why I don't trust those two?" He seemed to be leading into some sort of joke.
"Why?" Kisame was grinning in anticipation.
"Because I don't trust anything that can bleed for five days and not die!" They both laughed. Ritonno tried to hold it in, but lost both her secrecy and her invisibility as she burst out laughing.
Both men stared at her. While she was laughing, Itachi slipped past her, probably going to his room. If Ritonno stopped laughing and decided that the joke had lost its appeal, he didn't want to be there. Kisame followed soon after.
She went back down to her room and waited for Seiya to arrive and share the juicier details of her conversation with Leader.
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This is getting less like an innocent trip to a county fair and more like a soap opera love story. Today I read the Tyler's Van scene and skipped to the almost-rape scene and couldn't stop until the first lunch conversation when Bella knew Edward was a vampire (in Twilight). It's such a good book… Edward is so funny, too! …And it's witty humor, which is even better!
If you're not reading this on DeviantART – and I don't know why you wouldn't be, since I keep pushing it on everybody – I recently uploaded a ginormous picture for my friend Pocky-machine of Deidara and he's shirtless with a netting armband and totally awesome hair. If you couldn't tell, I'm the sort of anime fangirl who cares more about the hair than the shirtlessness and the netting. I'm gonna do To-chan, but with his long sleeves, gloves, and masks since he doesn't seem to want people looking at him. Deidara has the whole shirtless-for-the-fangirls thing going for him, but I'm not that kind of fangirl. I love the effect of whole bunches of cloth yardage. If you add in hair (we're assuming that this is all well-drawn) then we have a wonderful bishie, as long as the face or eyes don't have some sort of weird abnormality. For example, in Demon Diary, Eclipse has his low-neckline kimono, low-neckline cloak, etc., but I got even more into him (OMG THE HAIR!!!!!!!) when I saw him with his cloak blowing in the wind when he was sitting on top of that building waiting for Rae-chan the fifth.
If you were wondering why I write so much for comments, it's because I'm really chatty and I don't really care whether anyone listens. By the way, go to Sheelos-lover. for my DeviantART profile if you aren't on it already.