Hello! New update (: Thanks PsychoPyro and Gen for reviewing :D I love you guys, so I shall dedicate this chapter to you! :D Thanks for the support!
Kakuzu looked absolutely livid. His eyes scanned the room, where everyone had suddenly gone dead still. Hidan hung off his back, lips plastered to his neck, making small sounds of contentment as he sucked away.
It was the most disturbing sight. Kakuzu had never felt more pissed or mortified in his whole entire freaking life. He had to suppress the urge to go on a rampage and strangle every fucking person in the room who laid their eyes on him.
But first he wanted to fucking kill the bitch that was attached to his back.
Deidara held in the urge to laugh and tried to pry off Sasori's hands, which were attempting to block his vision. "What the hell man!"
Kisame felt a small jolt of sympathy for the stingy man and tried to help pry Hidan off, but the albino refused to budge.
Zetsu didn't even try to conceal his glee. "Well guess what, everyone! Hidan has a hidden fetish."
Itachi sighed and visibly facepalmed himself, glancing up at the ceiling and wondering what on earth he had done wrong to deserve being in such a situation. Tobi was hiding behind his cousin, trembling. "Kakuzu, I think you should take Hidan home before they try something else."
"How the fuck am I supposed to do that? In this state? In his state?"
"What, you mean you want to stay over with Hidan in Kisame's room?" Zetsu choked out between his outbursts.
"Fuck no. I—"
"I'll drive you two home, so stop shouting in my apartment." The exasperated Uchiha stood up and finished the last of his coffee. He rubbed the side of his head and closed his eyes, blowing out a sigh.
Kisame's jaw hung open in shock. "Itachi's offering to give them a lift. In his car. The world is coming to an end."
Itachi grabbed his phone off the table and spun his car keys around his finger. "Well then, let's go now." When Kakuzu didn't budge, he narrowed his eyes. "Get a move on, please."
Kakuzu gave a grunt and limped out of the room, giving everyone— particularly a certain blonde and a heavily tattooed man— a death glare that promised torture after he had recovered from the trauma. "I'm going to tear all of you limb. From. Limb."
Sasori felt Deidara shudder.
"And the rest of you, I hope that by the time I return, you will be safely back in your own apartments." One short glare from Itachi sent everyone scrabbling to grab their things. "Or else I will personally escort every single one of you back. Am I understood?"
"Y…yes, sir!"
"Wasn't that like the biggest breakthrough ever, un!"
Sasori shook his head as he walked next to the hyper blonde. "Breakthrough? I'd classify it as a disaster. Kakuzu is going to kill you, brat."
"Does it matter? I have Danna to protect me, un," Deidara replied good naturedly, unknowingly sending a warm shiver down the redhead's spine.
"Hn." He didn't know what else to say.
They continued walking in silence down the street towards the subway. The redhead couldn't help wondering why on earth Deidara had decided to wear a long sleeved shirt. The last time he had seen the blonde wear long sleeves was either a jacket, or a memory almost three years old. He contemplated asking, but decided against it. It wasn't exactly important.
He looked over to see Deidara staring at the ground, deep in thought. He watched those familiar blue eyes trained on the street and the small frown on his face. What's he thinking about?
"Hey, brat."
"Uh, un?" The blonde started and looked at him, one eyebrow raised in question.
"Do you have something on your mind?"
"Something? What thing? I don't think so, un. Haha," he said awkwardly.
"You do know that…" the redhead hesitated before looking back into Deidara's eyes. "You do know that, you can trust me. Right?"
Deidara felt his heart almost stop. "Uh. Yeah, Danna, un. You know I don't trust anyone more than I trust you."
"So if you have problems, you can tell me. Right?"
"Is your psychologist mode on, Danna? You'd make a really good one, un." Deidara grinned at him, amused.
"Right?" Sasori insisted.
"Yeah." He relented. "Of course, un."
"Good."
They continued in silence until a thin streak of lightning rippled in the sky.
Sasori narrowed his eyes when the first raindrop hit his face. No umbrella…
"Oh hey, Danna, why'd you stop walking?"
"Do you have an umbrella?"
"Huh? No, un. Didn't bring one out. Why?"
He was answered by the onslaught of rain that washed down over the unfortunate pair as if someone had decided to pour a bucket of water over them.
"Shit! This is the second time this happened this week, un!" Deidara put his hands up as if by doing that, he could fend off the rain. "Ugh."
"I don't think we can make it to the station…"
"Then what?"
"We should wait it out somewhere."
Deidara just made a face and followed the redhead, jogging towards the nearest shelter.
The sight of two sopping wet boys entering a café was not the most usual occurrence. The patrons gave the both of them a five second once over before turning away.
The waitress shot them slightly annoyed looks and even more annoyed looks at the puddles they left trailing behind them. "Can I… help you?"
"C…can we s…see your menu, u…un?" Deidara was shivering, pulling his sleeves down over his fingers and stuffing his hands into his jeans pocket.
"…Hold on."
They walked over to an empty booth and slid into it.
The same waitress appeared again and slapped two copies of the menu onto the table. "Last order is in half an hour," she said in a clipped tone, obviously hoping that the pair would take the hint and either hurry up or find another café so that she wouldn't have to get off work late.
"Latte," Sasori said, without even touching the menu.
The blonde, however, was flipping through the drinks section and taking his own sweet time. "Uhm… Hot chocolate," he finally said. "An a club sandwich, un!"
The waitress scribbled down their orders, grabbed the menus, blew out a sigh and stormed off.
"I think she's pissed you ordered food. It takes preparation time, and they are closing."
"It's their job to be nice to customers, un!"
"Customers have a duty as well."
"What, un?"
"It's respect, brat. Respect."
"Tch, un."
They sat in comfortable silence as they waited for their orders. Deidara sipped his hot chocolate and watched the patrons start to leave as it neared midnight. Sasori stole half of his sandwich but he didn't really care.
The last straw came when the redhead tried to sneak the piece of bacon out of the half Deidara was eating. "Hands off, Danna!" the blonde slapped at Sasori's hand. "Or I'll hate you forever, un." His blue eyes twinkled with laughter. "Nobody steals my bacon and lives."
Sasori's lips quirked up in a half smile as he shook his head and chuckled at Deidara's annoying but somewhat adorable child likeness despite the tough façade he liked to put on.
But the redhead didn't know how his smile made the blonde's heart beat faster or the way his sapphire eyes widened and froze. He didn't know how his laugh and crinkling warm brown eyes had sparked the ache that was starting to form again in Deidara's chest or the throbbing in his temple.
"Brat. What the hell are you doing inside the bathroom?"
Sasori sighed as he heard the blonde fumbling behind the door, giving annoyed little grunts.
"Can't you give me any sort of privacy, un! You even have to nag about me being in the bathroom."
"Anyone would nag. You've been in there for forty five minutes at least."
"Go away, Danna!"
"Braaaat." Knock, knock. "Braaaaaaaaat." Bang, bang. "Braaaaaaaa—"
The door opened and Deidara stepped outside, annoyed and pulling down his sleeves, adjusting his shirt, before reaching up to run his fingers through his long hair. "Bastard, un."
"We're leaving in ten minutes," the redhead said before disappearing into the bathroom. Long sleeves again...
Deidara stood outside for a while, staring at the door, before he made his way into the kitchen to nick another one of Sasori's croissants. He found a mug of black coffee waiting for him on the table and grinned to himself. Danna… thank you.
Sasori put his head around the entrance of the kitchen and narrowed his eyes at the blonde who was charging himself with caffeine. "Three minutes."
"Yeah, yeah. I'm almost done, un." Deidara stuffed the last of the croissant into his mouth and washed it down with the remaining few mouthfuls of coffee, placing the empty cup in the sink and dragging his feet out.
Sasori sighed and shook his head. "I was actually expecting you to wash the cup, since I made the coffee."
"Un?" the blonde blinked. "Uh. Do I really have to go back in there and wash it?"
"Forget it. I'll wash it later. Now get your ass out of the apartment."
"I love you, Danna!"
"Shut up, brat."
But Deidara didn't know how his carelessly spoken words had ignited something like a small flame within the stoic redhead; filling him with wave after wave of the warmest warmth he had ever felt in a long, long time.
Hidan's head was killing him. The permanent, annoying throbbing refused to budge from his head, an underlying problem that slowly became a huge one when the silver haired man realized that the dull ache was spreading to the rest of his head and even up to his neck. It had been that way since Sunday morning.
The teacher was going on about something related to mythology and Hidan had no freaking idea why they were teaching that in a history course. Not like it mattered, he wasn't going to listen, anyway. He put his head down on the table carefully, groaning quietly at the sharp pain that shot up the back of his skull as his forehead connected gently with the surface of the acrylic desk.
His mind swirled with hazy memories. What the heck did he do to make his head suffer so much? Last last night. What had he done? He had downed a few cans of beer, but that was about it. Probably just a hangover, but he didn't think that was the reason why Kakuzu had looked so murderous waking him up the next morning. And this morning too.
"Get. Up."
"Nnnghh Kuzu, fuggoff…"
"Up. Now."
"Gnnnghh… leave me alone…"
Hidan's entire body almost convulsed with pain when he felt the pillow collide with his face. "What the fuck!" he'd sat up so abruptly the room spun around him. He'd winced and grabbed his temple with his hands. "What did you do that for, you piece of shit!"
"Class. Get up. Now."
The look in Kakuzu's eyes had spelled "murder" letter by letter, and even Hidan felt a little intimidated by the glare that seemed to pierce through his retorts that suddenly seemed weak and useless.
"Fine. I'll get up. Nothing to get so fucking upset about…" Hidan had grumbled and stumbled out of bed, walking into the walls at least five times until Kakuzu had lost his patience and dumped the poor hung-over man in the bathtub and ran the cold water tap over his face.
"…DAAAARRRGHHHHHHHHHH! Kuzu, you FUCKING ASSHOLE. THE WATER IS FREEZING! DID IT COME FROM FUCKING ANTARTICA!?"
"Antartica doesn't exist. It only goes to show that you've been secretly watching Disney films like The Little Mermaid."
"FUCK OFF. I BET YOU IMPORTED THE WATER FROM SIBERIA."
"Whatever you want to think."
Hidan groaned and pounded his fists on the desk until the vibrations from his fists started to aggravate his hangover headache. "Fucking hell… it hurts…"
What had he done to piss the stingy bastard off so much, then?
Lunch on Saturday with the retards he called friends, and then…
His eyes widened and he sat up straight in his chair, grimacing at his head started to swim again. Fuck no. Deidara and his fucking idiotic plan. And that bastard Zetsu.
He had a vague recollection of finishing a whole pack of six cans of beer and then someone throwing him into a room. He frowned, tapping his forehead, willing more to surface. But he couldn't remember anymore than someone yelling at him to "get the fuck off my back".
Get off whose back? What was I doing on someone's back? That voice… Kakuzu?
"What the hell, man!"
"Well guess what, everyone! Hidan has a hidden fetish."
Hidan felt a jolt of dread and slight paranoia. Fuck. No. God, just. Fuck no.
"…dismissed."
Hidan was out of the classroom faster than anyone could scrape their chair backwards, heading towards the part of the campus where the business undergraduates usually have their lectures in.
Pein, Konan and Kakuzu were just about to open the door of the lecture theatre when it was flung open towards them with Hidan storming in, his face a mixture of red and green as if he was so angry or disgusted he was about to puke all over the place.
"…Hidan?" Konan peered at him carefully, her blue bangs falling over her eyes as she watched the panting man.
"Is something wrong?" Pein asked, having a bad gut feeling about it.
Kakuzu just narrowed his eyes and glared.
"Kuzu, what the fuck happened last last night?" Hidan stepped forward and grabbed his collar. "What happened? After I got drunk?"
"Drunk?" Konan wrinkled her nose. "Did you guys seriously go back to Itachi's to carry out your sadistic plan?"
"Yes, we did," Kakuzu ground out. "And they got me involved, too."
"What happened?" Pein repeated Hidan's question, except in a more civilized manner.
"This bitch got drunk. Latched himself onto my back and tried to suck my blood dry," Kakuzu growled drily. He watched Hidan's eyes widen in disbelief and a sort of horror bloom behind his stare. He doesn't remember. The nerve…
"I did not!"
"Like I said, you did. And you were drunk. You wouldn't remember. But everyone else saw. I think that asshole Zetsu filmed a video."
"He did not! I did fucking not!"
"Screw you, Hidan. Move it," Kakuzu shoved past the bumbling albino and stormed down the corridor.
Hidan stood frozen in the doorway, still trying to process the newfound confirmation. Why…
"Hidan, I hate to break it to you, but I think Kakuzu's telling the truth. We just have to double check it with Itachi or Kisame, and we will be able to confirm it." Pein gave him a sympathetic pat on the back and Konan hugged him comfortingly.
"Don't worry, Hidan. You're still you. We'll keep an eye on you when you go drinking next time."
"…I do not lick blood when I get wasted. Fuck no."
"It's nothing to be ashamed of—"
"Leave it, Konan. He's in a state of denial right now. He won't listen to anything."
"Well, all right. Let's just leave him here."
The both of them threw the stricken silver haired man another look and walked down the corridor.
"Do you think Hidan and Kakuzu are handling themselves well?" Kisame asked, slipping into the seat next to Itachi in the Italian restaurant. The both of them had suddenly developed a craving for spaghetti and pizza, and decided to have lunch at the nearest dining area that matched their craving.
"Kakuzu will find a way. I'm not sure about Hidan, though. I think he will be in denial for a couple more days." The Uchiha raised his hand to catch the attention of the waiter. "This," he pointed at a few choices on the menu, "this, and this," and returned it.
"Passion fruit soda," Kisame chirped.
The waiter jotted down their orders and left.
"Kuzu doesn't seem to be taking it well either. Maybe we went too far this time?"
"We?" Itachi raised an eyebrow and fixed his crimson stare on Kisame. "What did we do? All we did was sit there and watch them wreck the apartment apart."
"I don't know," Kisame said, slightly annoyed. "We didn't try to stop them."
"Would they have listened?" Itachi looked away.
"…Probably not."
The pizza came first, and Kisame tore off a slice, contentedly sinking his sharper-than-the-normal teeth into the crust.
"By the way, you didn't go for your checkup yesterday."
The broad shouldered man finished his pizza slice and glanced up at the frowning Uchiha. "Checkup?" he asked with his mouth full, "what checkup?"
"At the hospital? The reception called," Itachi narrowed his eyes.
"Hospital—? Oh." Immediately, Kisame stiffened. "I told you I am sane. I do not need to go for a mental checkup. I'm not crazy. Will you stop making me go for a checkup?"
"Are you sure? I think you should know schizophrenia is quite a serious thing. It induces hallucinations and it might endanger your life."
"And you care because…?" Kisame didn't know what made him say it, but he had blurted it out before he had realized.
Itachi's eyes widened slightly before he studied Kisame's face closely, resting his chin on his propped up fist. "Why do I care, you ask…"
Kisame almost died trying not to strangle the Uchiha for taking such a long time to answer.
"…I don't particularly embrace the idea of my closest friend submitting to a mental illness that from what I know, will put him in near death situations."
"…What the heck does that mean. Can't you talk normally?" Kisame felt himself trembling.
"In simple words, you could say that say I do not wish to lose you."
Before they knew it, Kisame had enveloped the stunned Uchiha in a hug.
Deidara turned his key in the lock and entered the apartment with a sigh. He walked to the couch and dumped his things on the couch. He had just spent the whole class in the lab doing analysis on bloodstains. It wasn't the most exciting activity.
There was a dull aching feeling in his chest. A feeling that made him want to reach inside to find the source of the pain and rip it out. He couldn't stand it anymore. He didn't know why he felt that way, but it had come about in the recent few months.
He dragged his feet into the bathroom and locked the door behind him. He leaned against the sink and watched his reflection in the mirror. Slowly, carefully, he placed a palm over his heart, willing the ache to subside, but it only amplified when a certain redhead crept into his mind.
No. I can't think about him now.
Deidara squeezed his eyes shut.
I can't.
He pulled his long sleeved turtleneck over his head and dropped the grey garment onto the tiles of the bathroom floor.
His finger traced the scars along the whole length of his arms. Some were old and healing, others were fresh and still pink.
I am a coward. But I can't let Danna know how I feel. I don't want to risk losing him.
He wondered briefly if falling in love with Sasori was what caused him to cut, but realized that it wasn't it. He had harbored a certain kind of sadness since a long time ago. He had always kept it under the layers of his near flawless façade, but he couldn't do it forever. He needed an outlet to let it go. He had decided to channel all the sadness into the life that oozed out of the cuts he made on his body. As if by doing that, he could drain himself of the unexplainable sadness.
Without thinking, his hand reached into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out his Swiss army knife. Deidara deftly flicked through the different kind of blades and clicked the one he was looking for in place.
Slowly, he dragged the blade along a length of his arm, watching, almost transfixed at the liquid bubbled from the wound and trickled down to his elbow.
The aching in his chest throbbed once, twice.
Before he could stop himself, he had made a wide slit across the surface of once perfect skin over his heart, the dark blood making a slow trail down to his stomach before seeping into a dark, almost black patch into the material of his jeans.
I feel it everyday, it's all the same.
It brings me down, but I'm the one to blame.
I've tried everything to get away.
So here I go again, chasing you down again.
Why do I do this?
A/N: How was it? :D Please review! :D cookies to you readers and an extra lollipop to reviewers! :D Thanks for supporting me. There aren't many SasoDei shippers around so I get high when someone else who shares my joy in SasoDei comes into the picture. We can relate, you know? :D Anyway please review! :D Thanks!