And finally, the motive behind this entire incident... Michiko's POV!

Yeah. I think you know what this is by now.

Deidara's Happy Story- Michiko's POV

Michiko's expression went deadpan. "If I understand correctly, you managed, somehow, to lose and regain both your arms during my absence?"

"Yeah…" Deidara mumbled. "But-"

"Boy, you really need FTC, don't you? Isn't that Sasori's job; to make sure you don't hurt yourself?" she added, chuckling under her breath at the idea. Sasori? Helping Deidara? Ha!

Deidara smirked a little and laughed half-heartedly. "I don't get any sleep thanks to Master Sasori. He hardly speaks to me except to gripe about something, he's so friendly with Eris." Deidara groaned and dragged a hand across his face. "So very friendly," he grumbled. "All night long."

"Eek," Michiko said blandly. "Didn't need to know that." She had no wish to know the intimacies of someone else's life; they reminded her too much of the ones she used to have. With Itachi… She shivered at the memory, almost dropping the knife. It probably would have landed point down in her foot, but that didn't matter anyway because she was dead. And because Deidara caught her hand up in his larger one before it left her palm.

"Sorry," he said sincerely. "Bad subject."

Michiko paused, standing perfectly still with his hand remaining on hers. She almost allowed a brief smile to flit across her face as a thought ran through her mind, slowing until the next bit was thought up.

Itachi's hands… never felt this warm…

"Yet, at least I was able to keep you from dropping that knife with my good as new arms!" Deidara crowed cheerfully.

Maybe he was trying to help, but he had completely ruined that moment of bliss she experienced. Not only that, but he also sounded just like his old, annoying, immature self. "Except for that patch of skin that looks like it came off of an elephant's butt," she shot back after she slapped the knife onto the counter, really just aiming to injure his joy. Maybe his attitude could just be contributed to his childish disposition, and he really just needed a snap back into reality…

"Geez, don't snap at me," he muttered sharply. "It's not my fault Itachi's left you bitter."

Michiko winced at the teeth of his words, curling her fingers back around the knife handle. They gnawed at her mind and nipped her sad excuse for a heart around the edges. A few particularly vicious words ate all the way to her core:

…Itachi's left you…

"Thank you for that one, Deidara," she breathed before her dysfunctional tear ducts could kick in. "While you're at it, why don't you take another stab at my heart?" She was so used to talking to Itachi she slipped into thoughts without realizing it. 'You're on a roll, now.' "Lance me again!" she challenged, swinging the knife in front of her. "I know better than anyone how a little physical pain can take your mind off your troubles!"

Her mind flashed to her wrists for a second before she focused back on Deidara as he tried and failed to avoid the cold steel slicing the air in front of him. The first thing Michiko noticed was the smell of blood. Then the sound of it pulsing out the tip of Deidara's finger, the tang of it in the air. The feeling of food in front of her.

Deidara tried to steal it away from her by sucking on his wound himself, but she had a hold of his wrist before she remembered what she was about to do. "Wait," she ordered solemnly, taking control of the situation. He didn't make a move, so she figured he was complying and stuck the tip of his finger in her mouth.

She released the excess air in her lungs in a sigh of gratification when the taste of the blood hit her taste buds and leaked down her throat. Not long after the blood flow slowed, so she began drawing it out with strategic pressuring from her tongue.

He tasted so good. And he smelled completely enraptured. Michiko needed a compliant person to feed her every once in a while; Itachi had refused because Eris said it was unhealthy, but Deidara wouldn't tell anyone. Deidara still liked her, as improbable as that first seemed, and he wanted her to be content with him. Now she just needed to keep it that way. She needed to be sure he would not stop short of selling his soul to please her. …What would make Deidara want to keep her happy…?

Smirking on the inside, Michiko rushed forward and kissed him.

Deidara seemed flabbergasted for a few moments before he got his head back out of the clouds and screwed on tight enough to start kissing her back. He picked up momentum as he went, getting into it a little more quickly than she had first surmised. She let her hands roam up his back and over the hot skin of his neck into the roots of his hair.

He convulsed slightly before pulling her closer and bending her backwards slightly, pushing down on her. She shivered at the sudden wet on her skin, startled by the feel of his other mouths kissing at her waist. At least she was keeping him interested, though she hadn't expected that. A little light bulb was turned on inside her head and she started to push him back toward the kitchen counter, distracting him from the movement with the ferocity of the kiss. Once he stopped moving back she braced for the move that would seal the event and ground herself into him, seriously enjoying the moan she forced from his lips.

Michiko's eyes flew open when Deidara broke past her lips and allowed his tongue to wander around her mouth. She relaxed at the comfortable feel of it and let her eyes close again, intertwining with him until he nicked his tongue on her left fang. She smiled and started to lick it up as it pulsed out of his tongue, trying some more pressure when the wound began to heal. He was still squirming a little, but he had more or less surrendered. Michiko enjoyed her victory until Deidara froze, turning from a rosy shade of burnished red to deep, deep black.

She paused for a moment, waiting for him to continue. When he didn't, she prodded his tongue with hers, trying to revive him. Deidara refused to move, and Michiko felt instinctively that something was wrong. She took a couple short sniffs and stiffened herself, pulling away from Deidara slightly and glaring fire and daggers at Itachi, standing in the doorway.

He was watching her; she could feel it. Michiko was about to tell him off when she was interrupted by a small pleading thought.

'You… I…'

She projected a stony silence in return, imagining what it would feel like to beat the living daylights out of him right then. Itachi was just an annoying interruption that needed to be quashed.

'Would you even care… if I-?' he asked slowly, staring at her blankly before she he was cut off.

Michiko didn't even give him any time to finish his question, let alone consider it. She clung to Deidara tighter and hissed at him. 'No. Why don't you do everyone a favor and go stab yourself or something? Nobody wants you around, you mind-rapist!'

'You wouldn't care if I… died…? Right now?' he thought brokenly, a pitiful amount of pathetic hope seeping into his tone.

Michiko shook her head slightly at him, taking care that Deidara wouldn't notice the mute conversation between them. Itachi still didn't leave, so she heated up the aggravation. She clutched at Deidara again and mentally snarled at Itachi.

'Never. This one is mine now, not you. Do you understand? This is-' she slipped back into normal speech when she snarled "-mine!"

Michiko had not one thought of regret or a feeling that she had gone to far, even when Itachi's heart skipped a few beats, spluttering in his chest. He acted like had just woken up from a horrible nightmare, and, unable to describe the horrors he witnessed, faded back to his normal vapid expression of suffering and drifted away.

She continued to growl after him, though; mentally and physically, just in case Itachi revived some hope in his mind. Until Deidara's fingers traced up the side of her face and tilted her head back so he could kiss her again. Pleased that she was not the instigator and that she most likely had Deidara on a leash now, she melted into him and returned the favor for a few minutes before she had a distant memory of a duty to make dinner.

She broke away reluctantly and tried slicing up the ham for a few minutes until she was consumed by a hollow, unfulfilled ache settling into her limbs. The feeling was alleviated when she got a pleasant shiver courtesy Deidara wrapping his arms loosely around her waist from behind and breathing heavily down her jaw line.

"This won't impede the progress of your making dinner, will it?" he asked impishly.

Michiko chuckled and took a moment to tease his lips with the tip of her tongue before replying:

"Dinner? Let's spring for dessert instead."