frat-boys and she-devils

chapter 8: a lesson in fire safety


It was 3am by the time Shikamaru had been kicked out, the rest of the boys had skulked off to their rooms, and the girls were finally going to bed.

Well, Hinata and Ino were in bed, Sakura was currently pressed up against Deidara's bedroom door with his tongue down her throat.

It was the first time she had been in his room - having snuck in there after telling the girls she was going to the bathroom - and she was pleasantly surprised by how neat it was. Deidara was chaotic in every aspect of his life, seemingly apart from his room. Although that may have more to do with the lack of possessions than any real organisation. The walls were a deep navy and were apparently used as one big canvas for the artist, paintings stretching from floor to ceiling. His bed was made, the desk uncluttered and the floor free from clothing.

Which was more than could be said about her room.

She had spent several minutes exploring the space, picking up random things to find out their purpose and their stories from the blonde that sat on his bed, watching her closely. She wasn't sure exactly when the kissing had begun, but she was seriously reluctant to let it end.

Unfortunately, she had to breathe at some point. Pulling away slowly, she rested her head back against the wood and traced his face with hooded eyes. She laughed quietly, tracing her fingers over the bare skin of his neck.

"Is it weird that this isn't weird?" she murmured softly, not wanting to break the moment by being too loud. Deidara chuckled just as quietly, kissing her once more before pulling his arms from her waist.

"As little sense as that made, I get you." He was slowly taking a couple of steps back, and Sakura raised an eyebrow in question. A look somewhere between a sheepish grin and a smirk pulled at his face, as his eyes roamed her body once. "You should probably get to your own bed before I end up taking you to mine."

Despite the joking tone, his eyes were dangerous, and Sakura felt her cheeks warm.

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea." Smiling happily, she maintained eye contact with him for a moment before turning to let herself out. "Goodnight."

"Night, Sakura."

She felt dizzy and elated, happiness fuelled further by the alcohol, and evidenced by the stupid grin on her face. When she looked in the bathroom mirror, she understand what Deidara had been getting at though. Her hair was mussed, her eyes glazed and her lips swollen. Her shirt was rucked up at her waist, and her chest was heaving slightly from exertion.

Oops.

Smirking at her reflection, she fixed herself quickly before heading back to her room.

Ino and Hinata were sat up in the bed, already in their pj's and cleary gossiping about her, judging by the satisfied smirk on Ino's face.

Before the blonde could even open her mouth, Sakura groaned and fell face first on to her bed. Her words were muffled by the pillow when she said, "tomorrow you can interrogate me, right now I'm too damn tired."

Her words were punctuated by a yawn that the other girls soon replicated, before simultaneously burrowing down under the covers. Ino gave a mock-annoyed huff of "fine" before smiling warmly when the pinkette caught her eyes. It wasn't often that any guy Sakura was interested in met Ino's high standards.

Knowing full well that she wasn't going to get any peace in the morning once Ino started grilling her for every single minute detail, Sakura sighed contentedly into her pillow, and accepted the fact that her life was about to get a lot more interesting.


Like most days, Sakura's morning started with a giant mug of coffee.

Unlike most days, she was enjoying that coffee while snuggled into the side of a tall blonde artist.

It was Sunday, just over a week since the two had become "official". They had been inseparable ever since Ino had been sent home with the juicy details on just how good a kisser Deidara was - a fact that had only become more apparent as the days passed. The whole of that last Sunday had been spent right where they were now, hidden away in the studio, swapping details of their lives.

It was one of those talks that you can only have with a select few people in your life - a discussion on dreams and hopes and fears and family. They'd laid a lot out on the table, but Sakura wasn't ready to share everything just yet.

Not that there was any rush.

A few casual dates of dinner or shopping had passed, during which Sakura had learnt two important things.

Deidara was both a food snob and a great stylist.

Sakura supposed that both of these things stemmed from his love of art. It turned out to be very helpful when Deidara was better at picking things that would look good on her than she was. She had several new outfits, courtesy of his recommendation. This was also a fact that she was forbidden to share with the other males in the house, as there was no way in hell they wouldn't rip the absolute shit out of him for it.

The food snobbery, however, was a little inconvenient. It meant that if Sakura didn't put her foot down they could take a whole hour trying to find somewhere to eat. It always paid off though, Deidara managing to find diners and bistros that served food so amazing Sakura wanted to cry.

Turns out there were many perks of dating Deidara.

Even this was a moment to be cherished.

They were sat not speaking, the only sound the music that played from the speakers and the scratching of Deidara's pencil. How he managed to draw properly when he had one hand slung round her waist was pretty impressive.

They hadn't really stopped touching each other all week. Not sexually (mostly), just physical affection. Deidara was surprisingly into hand holding and public hugging - although that may have something to do with his possessive nature.

Or maybe he just knew it made her happy.

They had slept together for the first time the night before. Actual sleeping, rather than sex. They had been cuddled in Sakura's bed, working their way through the Harry Potters when they finished the fourth and decided sleep was needed. Deidara hadn't wanted to leave the warmth, and Sakura hadn't wanted him to either.

They had stayed wrapped around each other, and Sakura had never slept so well in her life. Waking up had been amazing, too. His warm breath on her neck and the arm tight around her waist had made her feel safe and secure and wanted.

Things that, honestly, she hadn't felt in a long time.

Sakura sighed, taking a long gulp of coffee and smiling at the artist who had raised his gaze to grin at her.

Yeah, she was happy.


Deidara was in a foul mood.

That much was evident the second he got home, where he slammed the front door, threw his bag at the wall and stomped straight upstairs.

The kitchen was silent.

"Jeez, what's eating Rapunzel?" Hidan asked, leaning his chair back on two legs as he continued polishing his hunting knife (she still didn't know why he owned that). Kisame shrugged where he sat working at the kitchen table, and Sasori made a noncommittal noise as he continued tapping away at his laptop.

Sakura chewed her lip, eyes furrowed in worry as she slowly turned back to the pot she was stirring. Making a decision, with no idea whether it was the right one, she tossed down the wooden spoon.

"Take over, would you?" She ordered, flinging her apron at Kisame. The man barely had a chance to even begin to protest when Hidan cut in.

"You going to go cheer him up, Kitten?"

The lecherous grin on his face was quickly wiped off with a hard kick to his shin which sent him and his unbalanced chair toppling to the floor.

The confidence she felt in her choice was quickly diminishing, and by the time she stood facing her boyfriend's door, she was debating turning around and leaving.

He had seemed so angry, and she knew from experience that when he was angry he wanted nothing to do with anyone.

But she wasn't just anyone. Right?

Steeling herself, she briskly knocked on the door.

The muffled noise of things being carelessly tossed around and what sounded like angry pacing quickly ceased into silence.

It was several seconds before the door opened to his stressed out face. Seeing it was her, he didn't immediately slam the door in her face (which had been a possibility she was concerned about), instead leaving it open for her before retreating to flop on his bed.

Reassured, Sakura closed the door softly behind her and took a seat next to him, back against the headboard and legs stretched out in front of her. It wasn't long before Deidara turned to bury his face in her thigh, one long tanned arm hugging her hip.

Absentmindedly, Sakura began stroking his silky hair, waiting for him to start talking.

"My dad called," he began, voice carefully guarded, "he cancelled. Surprise, surprise."

Sakura had been worried this would be the problem.

Somewhere in their deep talk on families, Deidara had told her that he and has dad had never seen eye to eye. Their relationship just worsened as Deidara grew up, and at this point the two went for months and months at a time with no contact whatsoever. The blonde had admitted that he wanted to try fix things, apologise for being such a bratty kid and a messed up teenager.

So, with encouragement from Sakura, he finally plucked up the courage to call his dad and remind him that his birthday was coming up, and maybe they could get a beer or something.

He'd spent so long before making the call trying to convince both himself and Sakura that the man would laugh and hang up the phone, that when his dad agreed Deidara had been speechless for a while after.

Abruptly, Deidara pulled himself from her lap to sit by her side, glaring down at his fisted hands.

"I knew it was too good to be true. The fucking bastard never gave a shit about me."

It broker Sakura's heart to see someone so confident and caring be reduced to a little boy whose parents had given up on him.

Covering his fists with her warm palms, she tilted her head to catch his eye.

"Fuck him. You don't need him to have a good birthday. Me and the boys have got it covered, alright?"

The look he gave her was searching, and slowly a smile crept up on his lips.

"Alright."


Planning a party turned out to be easy.

She had palmed off the whole "inviting of guests" onto Hidan and Kisame, who had the double advantage of both knowing all of Deidara's friends and not being socially inept.

Sasori was told to create a playlist, and Itachi was put in charge of locking away anything even mildly valuable and/or breakable.

Sakura, meanwhile, had been busy figuring out her surprise for Deidara. The man had flat-out refused to let her get him a present (although she was ignoring that) and had forbid her from doing anything crazy that she couldn't afford (she was ignoring that too).

The party was in a matter of hours, and the boys had disappeared off to eat and to stock up on as much alcohol as they could possibly fit between three cars. Sakura had let them use her baby on the grounds that only Sasori was allowed to drive it, and if there was so much as a fleck of paint missing, Hidan was going to be castrated.

Luckily, Hidan had no doubt that that was a viable threat.

Checking her reflection again, she spun on the spot to make sure that her ass didn't look huge.

She was donning a tight, short, black dress with long, lacy sleeves. Figuring that it was a house party and so she didn't need heels, she was in a pair of black flats. Her hair was wavy and loose, her eye makeup dark and smokey, and Sakura was feeling pretty good.

"Damn girl, I'm getting hot and bothered over here."

Ino had just returned from the bathroom, which apparently had better lighting for the precise art of glitter liquid liner, with Hinata in tow.

Sakura laughed at the compliment, giving a mocking little twirl before eyeing up the two girls in front of her.

Ino, with her limbs that went on forever and hair so golden it was blinding, was in a sequined silver skater dress that probably would have looked trashy on most people but looked flawless on her. Matching silver heels elongated her legs even further, and her hair was twisted into the most artful bun Sakura had ever seen.

Ino was the epitome of a goddess.

Then there was Hinata, and Sakura couldn't help but drop her jaw in surprise.

Hinata, who usually wore cute little blouses with her jeans, or babydoll dresses, was looking downright sexy.

She wore a little purple vest and a black skirt cinched in at the waist, dark purple pumps and elegantly plaited hair. Her makeup, courtesy of Ino, made her face glow and Hinata looked more confident in herself than Sakura had ever seen her.

"Guys!" Sakura exclaimed, eyes flipping back and forth between the two, "You both look incredible!"

Hinata smiled and thanked her, while Ino posed and pouted and simpered.

"I love your dress, Sakura." Hinata smiled, grasping gently at the pinkettes wrist to examine the lace work of the sleeves.

"Yeah, and I bet Deidara will love it even more," Ino jibed, shit-eating grin in place as she walked around Sakura to poke her in the back. "A back cut this low means no bra, you slut. Guess we know what his birthday present is now."

The blonde then retreated quickly as Sakura took a swipe at her, before joining in with Hinata's laughter.

As the violet-haired girl poured three glasses of wine - that finished off their fourth bottle of the night - a commotion began downstairs. Male voices and heavy footsteps were followed closely by a sudden rush of thumping music.

"Looks like the party's starting without us, we better get down there!"

Sharing an amused smile at Ino's enthusiasm, Sakura and Hinata raised their glasses to clink with hers. Downing the ruby liquid, the three then checked their reflections once more before Sakura led the way down the stairs and into the growing crowd.


It was strange how being in a house-party full of strangers made Sakura feel at home.

The bottom floor was packed, univeristy students crammed in the front room and the kitchen, spilling out onto the deck and through the back garden.

Somewhere in this mess of people was Deidara, but she hadn't seen him in a while. He had left her to catch up with some friends, and since then she had been in the kitchen with Hinata, Ino, and a bunch of randoms. Hidan had taken up the title of reigning beer pong champion, and had started challenging anyone who came within a ten-foot radius of him.

Sakura had lost by one cup, and she was the closest so far.

The theory was that eventually Hidan would get drunk enough that he could not longer aim and Ino and Sakura would swoop in for the kill.

That was an hour ago now.

Feeling her phone vibrate from inside her dress, Sakura excused herself from the group of girls currently playing 'Never Have I Ever' and ran up the stairs to escape the noise of the crowd. With the slight decrease of bass came the realization of how drunk she really was, and she had to drop down to sit on the stairs as she answered the phone.

"'llo?" was what she managed to get out, and she vowed that she would slow down with the drinks for a bit.

"Sakura-chan, you're already drunk? I'm so proud!" The cheery voice of Naruto made her smile giddily, and she pressed the phone tighter to her ear to try and drown out the yelling of Bohemian Rhapsody that had suddenly started downstairs.

"Naruto! Hey Naru-chan, where are you and Queen Bitch, you were supposed to be here hours ago!"

Her voice always got a bit high-pitched when she was drunk.

The man laughed, and a wave of nostalgia hit her.

"We're outside you muppet, no one's answering the door. We've been stood here ten minutes!"

Immediately, Sakura hung up the phone and scurried down the stairs as fast as her drunken legs could carry her. Throwing open the front door, she launched herself at her childhood friends, locking an arm around both men's neck to tug them down to her height.

Naruto laughed and hugged her back just as tightly, while Sasuke placated her with a couple of pats to the back. Pulling away, she smiled up at them before grabbing two hands - one tanned, one pale - and dragging them through the door and into the sweaty mass of bodies.

"Come on, you've got a lot of drinking to catch up on."


"She's so pretty."

"Yeah, you've said that about five times already kid. Maybe you should just go and, I don't know, fucking talk to her?"

Naruto didn't respond to Kisame, choosing instead to remain staring over the back of the couch at the girl he'd only seen before in Sakura's photos. The purple-haired girl - Hinata, he reminded himself - was dancing with Ino and Sakura on the other side of the room, and he couldn't tear his eyes away from her.

Though that was probably the alcohol's fault.

He was so focused on the girl that he didn't even notice as Sakura caught him staring, pulled away from the threesome and threw herself down in the seat next to him - which happened to be Sasuke's lap.

The raven-haired ice-cube grunted and quickly pushed her sideways on to one of his knees, eyes transfixed on the screen in front of him.

Of course the boys had started a drunken Halo tournament.

Seeing she wasn't going to get anything from Sasuke until he'd decimated the entire red team, she turned to Kisame. The large man was slumped in the sole arm-chair, nursing a beer and nodding along distractedly to the music. He looked like he was trying not to fall asleep.

"Hey Ariel," she probed, getting only a grunt in reply, "what's up with Romeo over here?"

It took a second for Kisame to fix his vision on her.

"He's in love with your little purple friend," he sang, head lolling back against the chair.

Realising that was all she was going to get, she nudged at Naruto repeatedly until he finally looked up at her - it only took 18 nudges.

"Oh hey Sak'ra, whassup?"

"Since when did you have a thing for quiet girls with purple hair?"

The grin on Sakura's face was that scary one she got when she was plotting, and the only bit of Naruto's brain that had any sense left tried to tell the rest of him to run far and fast.

"Why, Sakura, I have absolutely positively no idea of what you could possibly be referring to."

The girl in question rolled her eyes at her idiotic, drunken mess of a friend and reached out to ruffle his sun-kissed hair. Standing up, she ignored the indignant protests from Sasuke telling her to move out of the way and locked her eyes with the blonde.

"She'll like you, Naruto. Talk to her." She raised her eyebrows meaningfully, hoping the blonde was paying any amount of attention to her, before turning to leave in search of Deidara.

Luckily, it didn't take long as the blonde was currently in the middle of a crowd, whooping Hidan's ass at the most aggressive and elaborate game of beer pong she'd ever seen.

She was pretty sure the players didn't usually have 21 cups each, but who was she to judge?

Unfortunately for her, she was going to have to spoil the fun, as the clock on the wall was ticking ever closer to midnight. Hoisting herself up onto a kitchen counter so she could see above the crowd, she locked an intense stare onto the silver head of hair. After about twenty seconds, Hidan glanced up in the midst of his victory dance and caught her eye.

Sakura pointed quickly at the clock above her head, and understanding broke out on his face. Grinning, he caught the ball that Deidara had just thrown at his cups.

"Alright everyone, listen up! It's nearly birthday boy's birthday, so everyone out on the deck. You're going to want to see this shit!"

Hidan's voice carried, somehow, over the music and it wasn't long before the crowd was pushing out the doors to swarm the deck and patio. A few guys in black - Hidan's friends who she had hired to do this who were probably absolutely legitimate - were wandering around the bottom half of the garden, separated from the party goers by a temporary fence. On the other side of the deck stood a giggling Hinata and a bashful Naruto that had Sakura's heart melting.

A hand found hers, and she was met with bright blue eyes and a confused look.

"What's going on?"

Sakura merely hummed in response, pulling Deidara close enough to bury into him with her arms around his waist and her head against his chest. From there, she could feel the laugh that vibrated through his chest.

"I thought I said no presents, and no stupid money spending?"

She grinned up at him as his arms wrapped around her shoulders.

"And I thought I said I wasn't going to listen to you?"

Just then, a boom shattered the noise of the crowd and blue light sparked across the black sky.

Deidara was immediately transfixed, eyes wide as he stared at the fireworks exploding above them. Oohs and Ahhs rang out from the people around them, but it was only Deidara's reaction that Sakura was interested in.

Honestly, his obsession with pyrotechnics teetered dangerously on the verge of being a fetish. A fetish that she wanted nothing to do with.

Yet, she couldn't help but feel ecstatic as she watched his smile light up with the glow of the flames and the fireworks. Eventually, he turned to her, the awed look still in his eyes.

"Happy birthday, Deidara."

She reached up on her toes to kiss him, then pulled back to rest against him once more. His arms tightened around her, and they watched the night sky fill with the light of the explosions, and he couldn't help but feel that no other birthday would ever live up to this.


A/N - So it's been a month...oops. Sorry, been super busy! Slightly longer chapter than normal in the hope that it makes up for the wait, and I'll get the next chapter up asap. Thanks!