Again a chapter that was supposed to be named Wilt but at the last minute wasn't. Lots of insight on the past in this one. Not much romance...maybe a little. More explanation than anything. But, hey, it's here! Chapter five is finally here! Special thanks to everyone who reviewed, favorited, and added to alert list.
Reminder: This story does not necessarily follow the Naruto time line, and it more of a collection of one-shots than an actual story.
Rating: T for some adult themes (death, sexual references, inferred nudity?)
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any shape or form. The only thing I do own is Aika...and her family P:
I felt the whispers from the lips of all the adults, even if I didn't know what they were talking about. They spoke words of which I didn't know the meaning to and even worse they were calling my mother such words. I stood up from my place in the sandbox with tears brimming my eyes. I didn't have to know what the words meant to know that they were bad.
Mother was smiling at me, even though I could see a single saline drop slide down the side of her face. I turned my head to see the other mothers staring at me with eyes full of malice and blind hatred. My tiny heart sunk in my chest as my pupils moved from one parent to the next.
Until my eyes came to rest on her, whose mouth was not moving and whose eyes showed no hint of disgust. She had dark brown hair that was slightly darker than my own mother's chocolate colored locks. A strange smile spread across my face as I continued to gaze at her, she seemed blank with no meanness or kindness- just a blank slate.
A young boy, perhaps a year older than me, ran up to her. He had fiery red hair and matching eyes that made me smile more. The blank woman's expression did not change. It stayed the same. She did not move. I took a step towards the pair in intrigue. He was speaking to her softly, asking her questions and suddenly a small blue light caused me to blink. The woman moved ever so slightly in order to physically greet the red-head.
Her hand ran across his head and down his cheek. His fingers were twitching slightly and more little blue lines of light sparkled in the sun. Despite her caring caress her eyes stayed the same. I moved towards them again, not stopping to stare this time. I wanted to know him and his strange caretaker. Why didn't she shun my kaa-san like so many others did?
The boy seemed shocked when he noticed my presence. He then noticed all the stares that they were receiving from the rest of the buzzards. All eyes were cast on the orphan and the daughter of a whore. Why were they even allowed to come to the playground?
"Hi, I'm Aika!" A cheeky smile spread across my face as I clasped my hands behind my back. The boy stared at me for a moment as if trying to figure out why I was talking to him or even acknowledging his existence.
"Sasori," he muttered softly before his head cocked to the side in interest. What a weird little girl. A smile (not nearly as cheerful and sweet and full of happiness as my own) crossed his tanned five-year-old face. It was small but sincere. It only made me like him more.
I looked up at the now motionless woman before asking in a tone that was just as excited as before, "will you play with me?"
He followed my gaze and frowned before straightening his posture. The woman seemed to slump forward at his movements and the bits of blue lights disappeared. Another rare smile flashed across his face, "sure."
"Cheep, cheep!"
"Huh?"
My eyes fluttered open to see a small clay bird poised on the side of the bathtub. I looked at what used to be a tub full of bubbles to see what merely looked like soapy water. "Cheep, cheep!"
Its thin wings flapped in excitement, making me smile lightly. "Dei-kun?"
A rather exuberant blond sprung from the doorway, wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. The little masterpiece cheeped again at his entrance before hopping down to the ground and tottering away.
"Good morning, Aika-chan! Mind if I join you, un?" I grinned and pulled my knees up to my chin to make room for him. He ditched the towel and slid into the lukewarm water.
"It's cold, yeah!" He pouted cutely while taking his hair down from its half-up position.
I giggled at him and held my arms out to him, "Dei-kun, you're the one that wanted in. Your hair is dirty, you never clean it!"
He scratched his head, shaking random bits of soot free. They fell into the water as he turned his back to me and leaned against my legs. "That's because I like when you do it, yeah!"
I smiled again, warmly though he could not see it, as I started to tread my fingers through his long golden locks. "Where is Sasori-kun?" I started to wash his hair like I had dozens of times before. It wasn't sexual, just…friendly. It was relaxing for both of us.
"Talking with Leader-sama about Konoha, un."
My spine stiffened at the thought of that village. Deidara noticed that I stopped playing with his hair and glanced back at me with a curious expression. "Why'd you stop, hm?"
I shook my head and closed my eyes, pushing back the memories of being held captive by leaf nins. I had only arrived back at the hide out last night. Sasori must be briefing him on what had happened and telling him of my loyalty to the organization. Had I given up information like they wanted- I'd have to be killed.
Deidara lazily handed me a bottle of shampoo to break me out of my thoughts. He shivered when I squirted it onto his head. "Cold, Dei-kun?"
"I hate it when you do that, yeah."
I giggled and started to scrub his scalp. The boy never washed his hair it seemed. He always wanted help with it. Deidara relaxed further against my legs, nearly squishing me. I looked around, noticing that there wasn't a clean way to rinse the suds out.
While he wasn't paying attention I cut the shower on and the head above us rained cold water down into the tub. Deidara jerked up angrily, "Aika-chaaan!" He hugged himself at the temperature of the water.
I laughed at his frustrated face before reaching up to release the soap from his hair. He pouted the entire time, making him only look younger than he actually was.
Once finished a tired-looking Sasori walked into the room. He stared at the site of both of us in the tub together with a bored look. He knew now more than ever that he didn't have to fight for my heart. He already had it.
Sasori remembered vividly the first time Aika had met Deidara. She was apprehensive to say the least. During her first encounter with Orochimaru, he wrapped his tongue around her throat and licked her cheek. His flower was utterly disturbed for the following weeks and refused to be near him. He had said something to her which Sasori could never figure out. She would not tell him. She would not tell anyone.
But when the young blonde was first introduced to her, her eyes lit up like new candles. Even though she was over ten years his senior there was an immediate connection on a childlike level. She smiled brightly at him as he grinned back.
For a moment jealousy had struck him deep into his chest until she greeted him, "Hello, Deidara-nii-san." She had called him brother, and thus he knew instantly that she would never fall in love with him. No matter how close their relationship would grow to be- she would only love him as a friend or even as family. It is hard to tell how Aika loves people sometimes. She acted differently with each member, but with Deidara there was a bond in a much deeper fashion.
The two were very much not in love but just acted as playmates. Aika didn't have many friends - in fact she only had Sasori (who only had her in return) - and to her Deidara was a dear friend. Her closest friend next to himself, of course. No one will ever know her like Sasori does.
In any way, he no longer felt jealousy when they were together especially when he stumbled upon her washing his hair. It was more motherly than sexual. There was no faint smell of arousal in the air. Just friendship.
Aika beamed at him, a look he once feared he would never see again. He turned off the shower, much to Deidara's pleasure. The blond wrung his hair out before shaking his head like a dog.
Sasori would have been angry if it weren't for the giggle of surprise that Aika let out. The sound made him so calm that he couldn't say anything in regards to just being sprayed by his partner's wet hair.
Dediara stood up and wrapped the towel he had entered with around his waist. He then quietly took his leave. Aika was still smiling up at the red head without a trace of guilt on her beautiful face. Not that there was anything for her to be guilty of- she was just washing his hair and Kami knows he needed it.
Aika stood up and used her hands to fling off the excess water while Sasori handed her a fluffy red towel that was hanging on the metal towel rod beside the tub/shower combo. She dried her arms and legs before wrapping it around her torso. Sasori stared at her, stared at the bruises and sores from her trials in Konoha. The guilt Aika did not possess, suddenly possessed him.
He frowned at the site of them and she blushed in embarrassment. The flush made his guilt wash away and love suddenly blossomed through his veins once more. "Aika-chan."
She blinked up at him, surprised by his utterance of her name. Before her leave he had rarely said it, especially with the added suffix. The addition made her warm inside and her flush dissipate. Finally the truth about how they felt was out in the open, after years of repressed emotions they were finally freed. The air seemed so much lighter now after the previous night's love confession.
He tossed a towel onto her head so that she could dry her hair. She let out a muffled laugh before bringing her hands up to massage the water from her brown tresses. "I have a present for you."
Aika peeked out from under the medium-sized towel on her head. She looked unbelievably adorable with the towel partially covering her head and the look of excitement on her face. She threw the towel onto the ground and the adorableness suddenly turned into sexiness. With wet hair tussled into askew slightly-curled locks and pretty much naked nearly made him shut the door and lock it.
But Sasori had more control over himself then he thought and tried to ignore the thoughts that were quickly growing inside his head. To think he almost lost her. If he hadn't of come when he did then she would have surely wilted into an empty shell of what she is now.
"You have to wait for it."
She pouted, again changing the atmosphere this time from sexy to cute. No wonder men were always after her, she could be any sort of attraction she wanted to be whether is just be innocently attractive and deviously sexy. The range gave her the power to have any man she wanted, yet in the end she had ultimately chosen him. There was no feeling that could parallel that of which he felt when he finally realized that.
"Puppets?" The little Aika reached forward and touched the knee of Sasori's pseudo-father. It had been a week since they first met and they were already close knit. She visited him nearly every day, always knocking on the door to see if he wanted to play. When he wasn't home (which was usually when he was at the ninja academy), Chiyo would let her in and she would sit and wait for him patiently.
The first couple of times he was surprised to see her there sitting between his lifeless wooden parents, smiling happily whenever she saw him. After a few days of this he finally got used to having someone there waiting for him.
"Yes." Sasori replied softly, inwardly nervous about what her reaction might be. He half expected her eyes to grow wide in horror and for her to run out of the house and never look back.
Instead, instead she laughed lightly (not in a mocking manner, more like in relief). "I thought they just didn't like me."
She grinned at him toothily, something she didn't do anymore. Again it was the innocence that confused him the most. She didn't care that his parents were just puppets or that he controlled them to fill the hole in his heart.
Sasori smiled faintly back at her, she could be so naïve. Aika's expression however suddenly changed. She looked back up at the two puppets with a small frown on her face. "Most parents won't talk to me. They don't like kaa-san." She spoke ever so softly, as if she didn't really want him to hear her.
"But Chiyo-baasama talks to me!" Her grin returned, although it wasn't as bright as before. It seemed a little forced this time.
Chiyo popped into the room at her sound of her name, "Aika-chan, are you staying for dinner tonight?"
Aika giggled in delight, she loved Chiyo and Chiyo loved her. She was glad that her grandson had found someone special. Or at least someone who didn't think he was an orphaned freak.
"Can I, Chiyo-baasama?"
She nodded her head yes, and Aika clapped her hands together in excitement. "I'd love to!"
Aika sat cross-legged on Sasori's bed. She was dressed now in a simple tank top and cloth shorts. Her hair was damp, but combed neatly down instead of springing out every which way. She watched as Sasori moved about the room, reminiscing about the past.
He pulled out a small paper bag and tossed it onto the bed. He wasn't sure how to give gifts anymore. And it wasn't really a gift more of a…re-gift? He didn't really know what it was.
She excitedly opened up the bag, a shocked expression spread across the face…
Aika sat at her mother's vanity, her legs swinging back and forth since her feet didn't quite touch the ground yet. Her hair was in its usual low pig tails, but they were about to get a now adornment. Two black ribbons were lying side by side in front of the vanity's mirror. She recognized them as the ones her mother used to wear all the time.
Her eyes began to water as she picked them up and tied one around each pig tail. She stared at them in the mirror and smiled warmly. "I love you, kaa-san." She whispered lightly before getting down. Her father called for her to hurry up so they could make it to the funeral in time.
His eyes hardened when he saw the additions of ribbons in her hair. He scoffed and was about to tell her to take them off, but when he saw the look of sadness on his little girl's face, he couldn't. Instead he turned away from her and opened the door. His wife was dead. From a venereal disease, one that he did not give her. He was almost too ashamed to go to her burial but he did it for his children.
More specifically for his daughter. His son had the same feelings that he did in the matter, but his oblivious little girl wanted nothing more than to visit her mother one last time. He didn't want to lose her like he lost his wife, so he agreed to take her.
"You were the only one that showed up." Aika murmured softly as she took the two black ribbons from the bag. She thought she had lost them in Konoha, but somehow Sasori had managed to find them. They meant the world to her and he knew it.
She wiped away potential tears and sprung from the bed in order to wrap her arms around Sasori. He understood her undying love for her mother, even though she was a whore; he also understood the pain of losing a parent. He was the only one there for her when her mother died. Her father and brother didn't seem to care as much as she did that her beloved kaa-san was gone. It hurt her more than they would ever know.
Sasori hugged her back; he expected this reaction, although he didn't think she'd be so abrupt about it. She nuzzled her face into his chest while clutching her gift (or rather re-gift) close to her heart. A smile (not nearly as excited and sweet and full of happiness as hers) crossed his tanned face. It was small but sincere. It only made her love him more.
I hope you enjoyed, and I hope the flashbacks didn't take over the actual story (though I think it probably did). Less flashbacks next chapter, though they do help me reach my 3k word quota. Just like these little quips do. ^-^ Anyway, thanks so much for waiting and reading.
I actually just realized that all of my little page breaks I make it word do not transfer over to ff. Little late, right? I hope it hasn't been too confusing. I'm much too lazy to fix it (although if there are any complaints I will go through and edit the chapters). Cheers!