Okay, so I'll get started right away.
"Otouto, is this your friend?" Itachi asked, big brother mode ON.
"Yes, Itachi, this is. . ."
"I don't need an introduction, Sasuke, you talk about your big brother often enough. My name is Hyuuga Neji."
"Hn. What he said." How did that brat of an Uchiha manage to make a friend? A friend in a travelling circus, no less.
Itachi was not impressed. This man –Hyuuga Neji– was much too pretty for him to allow his otouto to associate with. He was too beautiful.
Almost translucent, moonlight pale skin was complimented by milky white eyes that seemed to shine lavender in the sun, and his long, chocolate brown hair whipped in the breeze.
Too pretty by half.
"Otouto, do not, say 'hn'. It is not a word." Sasori very nearly facepalmed then and there. It was a well known fact that Sasuke only knew of the word/sound/language that was 'hn' from Itachi.
"Hn. Like you can talk, Aniki." Yeah, Itachi had it copyrighted.
"Hn" and there we go. Sasori scoffed.
"You don't care what Sasuke says, you're just trying to exercise your control over 'your otouto' in front of his friend so he doesn't get any ideas." The non-look in Itachi's face spoke volumes to those who had known him for a while. And 'a while' means at least ten years.
"Sasori. . ." and there was the famous if-you-even-look-at-me-wrong-at-the-moment-I-will-kill-you,-your-mother,-your-lover-and-anyone-you-ever-even-remotely-know glare. Sasuke hadn't quite got that one down pat yet, but Itachi was working on it with him. So far, he had progressed quite a lot, and could manage up to 'if-you-even-look-at-me-wrong-at-the-moment-I-will-kill-you,-your-mother,-your-lover,-and-anyone-you-ever'. So yes, it was a work in progress.
"That's my name." Sasori arched an eyebrow at Itachi, and the slightest twitch of his mouth gave away his amusement.
"You look like a drowned cat, and I'm pretty sure that the dye will wash out of your hair if you don't get it dry."
In the background, Deidara snickered. If he kept count correctly, the score was black-haired asshole: 3, red-haired asshole: 2.
"IT'S FUCKING NATURAL, YOU STUPID, UNEDUCATED, MORON!" Sasori exploded.
Damn, but watching them was funny. It was like. . .god, he didn't know how to describe it. And Deidara could describe everything.
He looked to the side a bit, to see Neji looking a bit lost, so he decided to put the long haired brunet out of his misery.
"Okay, so redheaded bastard is friends with black haired bastard, who is duck butt's brother." Neji turned to face the blond.
"Deidara, what are you even doing here?" Neji's quiet voice was still as silky smooth as his hair.
"Oh, eh. . ." he tried to think of something that was believable, but nothing came to mind. So he decided to stick with the truth.
"Well, Orochimaru's dumber than he looks, so he tried to rape me again." Silence came from the assholes' direction, but he stubbornly kept his clear blue eyes focused on Neji.
"And then I blew him up, 'cause he and Kabu-bitch-" Neji made an understanding noise "-tried to drug me. Anyways, as I was running away, I bumped into this red-headed bastard-" here Deidara waved his hand at Sasori "- who had the fucking nerve to tell me that art is eternal. I mean, who in their right mind believes that? Art is a bang." The last statement was accompanied by a small shrug.
The two assholes (as Deidara had dubbed Itachi and Sasori) were staring at him; almost identical almost frowns on their faces.
"He tried to rape y-?" Itachi was cut off by Sasori's icy tone.
"For god's sake brat, how many times do I have to tell you? Art is eternal. Eternity is art. A BANG IS JUST A BANG, YOU STUPID CHILD!" Sasori screamed, completely disregarding the 'attempted rape' part of Deidara's story. But there was something different in his tone – worry? Concern? Some other synonym? Deidara was probably imagining it.
"ART IS NOT FUCKING ETERNITY, ASSHOLE! DON'T YOU KNOW ANYTHING? ART IS TRANSIENT! A FUCKING BANG! GET IT RIGHT!" Deidara screamed.
Itachi snorted. Sasuke stared. Neji looked like he wanted to run away.
"Eh. . .Deidara?" Neji touched Deidara's arm gently, drawing his attention away from the redhead that so irritated him.
"Yessss, Neji?" the blonds' teeth were clenched together so hard that he almost sounded like Orochimaru.
"Don't blow anything up, okay?" Neji looked just a little bit nervous. "If I'm with you and you do something stupid, we'll both get" Neji moved closer, tugging Deidara's head down to meet his shorter one. "punished." The look on Deidara's face said that whatever it was that would happen to them, it wouldn't be fun.
"Heh. . ." it was a breathless half laugh, that was nowhere near convincing. "You know better than to talk about that kind of stuff, Hyuuga. It's a ji~inx." The wink and the playful tone didn't fool anyone, and Sasori in particular looked suspicious.
"Hn. Brat." Sasori didn't really know what to say, and he didn't like people ignoring him. He was Akasuna no Sasori, and people did not just ignore him. Especially if they were artists.
"Akasuna, I have that copyrighted." Itachi's dry humour joined in the conversation, and Deidara's mouth dropped.
Aka-Akasuna. . . Sasori . . . Akasuna no Sasori?
"No, you have 'Hn. Foolish otouto' copyrighted. I'm free to use 'brat' in any way that I wish."
"Aka- did you just say Akasuna?" Deidara sounded shocked. "As in Akasuna no Sasori, the puppet master?" Sasori wondered if the brat's eye/s would pop out of his head.
"Yes, I am Akasuna no Sasori. Problem?" Sasori's elegant red eyebrow arched towards his messy hairline, and the way he was standing caught the sun in his eyes, making them shine an auburn honey colour that had Deidara staring even harder, trying to match up the hunched over pictures of the puppet master he had seen, to this almost doll-like man.
"N-no problem, I just . . . I-I" Deidara was as tense as he had ever been, faced with this prominent figure in the art world. If you had ever taken art as a subject in school, been to a museum, or an art gallery, you had heard of Akasuna no Sasori, a prodigy who had been making puppets since the tender age of three. He was notoriously reclusive, and only a few interviews had ever been taken with him, and in them plenty of the words were censored, and a few had been cut of halfway through. Deidara could see why that was now.
"I've just. . .heard of you, and I didn't, ummm. . ." Deidara trailed of lamely, smiling sheepishly and bringing a hand up to play with his soaking blond locks.
Just then, a gust of wind came whistling though the little clearing, and the two drenched artists shivered. It was cold, even though the sun was shining brightly. Sasori frowned even deeper, before going over to Itachi and snatching his suit jacket off him.
Itachi didn't protest, knowing that if he did, his redheaded sort of friend would scream at him. Sasori had grown up and lived most of his life in the desert, and he was still used to the scorchingly hot temperatures of his hometown, Sunagakure. He had only been in Konoha for a couple of years before moving back to his old home, saying that the leaf village was too cold for him. They had kept in touch, and Itachi still teased Sasori about his sensitivity to the cold.
"Hmph. I don't care, brat." The acidity of Sasori's words and the haughty pose of his body were lost on Deidara, as he tried to suppress laughter. Itachi's jacket was much too broad on Sasori's delicate shoulders, and his hands had been lost somewhere in the sleeves.
When he finally pulled his deceptively fragile hands out of the long arms of the black jacket, he just looked even more like a kid playing dress up with his father's clothes.
Sasori's scowl deepened as Deidara pressed his hand to his mouth again, trying (unsuccessfully) not to laugh. Deidara liked Sasori's temper, though he would never say so out loud. It was volatile and unpredictable, just the way Deidara liked his. . .well, everything, really. He didn't quite understand how the redhead could be so mistaken in his artistic views, but he could deal with that . . . with a lot of arguing in between.
"I'm sure you don't." the winning smile on Deidara's face was completely at odds with the words he was saying. Sasori scowled at the mirth that echoed around the brat's eyes, and he wished that he could be at least a little bit taller. He was uncomfortably aware that he looked like a porcelain doll that had been fitted with the wrong clothes.
"Stop looking at me like that, brat." Sasori ordered, not caring about how ridiculous he must have sounded. He didn't like the way the brat's clear, perhaps-just-a-shade-lighter-than-cerulean-eyes were staring at him.
Meanwhile, Neji and Sasuke seemed to be a bit confused.
"Aniki, how does the blond-"
"Deidara," Neji interjected, and Sasuke nodded his acknowledgement.
"-Deidara, then. How does he know Sasori?" Sasuke's onyx eyes, so like his brothers, stared up at Itachi with a look that always gave him a *ahem* problem in his pants. It was a mixture of naïveté, innocence, a thirst for knowledge, and so much trust that it had Itachi literally shaking in his boots. He bit back a smile, keeping his face almost at its usual stoic standard. But he couldn't quite suppress the upturning of his lip, and he couldn't keep the affection, care and love out of his eyes as he gazed at his brother silently.
Sasuke's heart swelled in his chest as his brother looked at him. It was nice to know that he wasn't the only one who couldn't keep his emotions in check, and that his brother wasn't as immune to 'attacks of love' as he used to think. Ever since the day when they had become lovers, Itachi had become so much more open about everything. He let his emotions show on his face, and, once or twice, he had talked to Sasuke about their parents' murder.
Itachi had been ten, and the only reason that he had survived the massacre was his quick thinking. He had heard the gang of people talking about killing the whole of the Uchiha clan, so he had gone to hide. He figured that they may miss one person, if they were hidden well enough.
Itachi was a unique thinker, so he didn't decide on a place like a cupboard or under the stairs. No, Itachi had hidden in the fridge, of all places. He had heard the dying screams of his parents, and his small sobs had been hidden under the loud wheezing of the old refrigerator, that Mikoto, their mother, had always meant to get replaced, but never got around to. She would be glad to know that it had saved her eldest sons' life.
Sasuke still didn't know all the details, and he didn't want to pry. All he knew was that after that fateful day, Itachi had become his everything, and he was pretty sure the feeling was reciprocated. But it was only at certain times when the love Itachi felt for his precious otouto would overflow into his charcoal eyes.
Sasuke stepped two steps forward, and wrapped his arms around his big brother.
"I love you, Aniki. You're my whole wide world, and I'll never love anyone like I love you." Sasuke looked up, a trembling smile on his pink lips.
"I love you too, otouto, and I could never replace you with anyone. I live for you, Sasuke." He shivered when Itachi spoke his name. It was like a caress, intimate, warm . . . everything Itachi was, but no one but Sasuke got to see. And if anyone but him could bring that side of Itachi out. . . Sasuke didn't think he could carry on.
Neji coughed, reminding the brothers of his presence. The two artists were still arguing in the background, except instead of the sort-of intelligent points they had been making before, they were just yelling at each other.
Itachi sighed, and kept one arm wrapped around his little brother, before answering the question that had been plaguing Sasuke and Neji.
"Deidara probably knows Sasori by reputation. He's quite famous, because of some . . . oh, I don't know. Ask him why he's famous yourself." Sasuke knew that Itachi was lying. If he didn't know something, he at least tried to bullshit his way through it, and try to figure it all out without proclaiming his ignorance.
Sasuke figured it was a touchy subject, and he knew what Sasori was like when he was angry.
"You don't want me to know, do you, Aniki?" Itachi's little smiled broadened almost imperceptibly.
"I don't care, and Sasori probably doesn't either, but you have to understand that he's an intensely private person. I've been his acquaintance for a long time, and yet I still do not know very much about him. Telling other people about his life, no matter how trusted they are, is a taboo." Sasuke nodded. It fit with the little he knew of Sasori's character. Despite the amount of time Itachi spent with the redhead, the younger Uchiha had never gotten to know him very well. Partly out of jealousy (he didn't like people intruding on is 'Aniki time') but mostly because Sasori was too unpredictable for Sasuke's tastes. He swore that the man could go from perfectly calm to 'I'LL KILL YOU!' angry in a matter of seconds.
". . .WELL, FUCK YOU, AND YOUR MUM! I DON'T CARE IF YOU'RE FUCKING LUKE SKYWALKER, UN! ART IS A FUCKING BANG!"
"WHAT DOES BEING LUKE SKYWALKER HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING, YOU IDIOTIC BRAT? AND YOU ARE DELUDED! ART IS ETERNITY!"
"YOU WISH! AND LUKE IS AWESOME, SO SAYING THAT I'D SHOUT AT YOU IF YOU WERE LUKE IS A BIG THING, UN!"
"WHO ARE YOU TRYING TO FOOL, BRAT? LUKE SUCKS ROCKS! ANIKIN IS THE AMAZING ONE!"
"OH, IT'S ON NOW, UN!"
Sasuke growled and whispered in Itachi's ear.
"What, it wasn't on before? Why do you even hang out with Sasori?" Neji groaned, putting his face into his palms.
"And Deidara will probably blow something up," Neji looked resigned, but still sort of angry. "And if I come anywhere near him, he'll hate me forever, and then he'll blow me up." The poor brunet looked as though he wanted to disappear into the ground.
"I hang around with Sasori because he is the closest I have ever gotten to having someone as intelligent as myself, no offence to you otouto, and I have no idea what has gotten into him today." Itachi frowned, staring at the spectacle in front of him. "And Neji," he turned to face his little brothers' all too elegant for his peace of mind friend. "What do you mean by Deidara will blow him up?"
The artists had escalated to fists again and Neji was watching transfixed. He had known that Deidara was flexible and strong, but he wouldn't have pegged Sasori for anything combat-worthy. Neji found himself envying the redhead's speed and strength as Sasori kicked Deidara back a few feet.
"You see that little bag hanging off his belt?" Neji pointed a long, moonlight pale finger at said object. It swung as Deidara completed the land/turn/spin combination that had had sent him tumbling into the fountain earlier in the day. Itachi nodded, noticing how the blonds' hand frequently brushed the top of the small canvas holder.
"That is full of Deidara's special detonating clay. Will and word will activate it, but nothing else can do it. Occasionally he uses fire, to add to the explosion, and to make it 'prettier'. His words, not mine." Neji was looking on, his brow furrowed in concern. He was silent as Sasori surged forward and landed a punch on Deidara's arms which had been crossed over his head. Absentmindedly, he noticed that it actually looked quite nice, the way the golden hair sometimes became entangled in the vivid red, the way all the two artists could see was themselves, like they were in their own little world.
"What do you mean by 'will and word'?" Sasuke inquired, looking sideways at his long time friend. They had met Sasuke was about nine years old, and Neji was eleven. Neji had been running away from someone, and Sasuke had yanked him into a back corner and hid until three men, dressed in black, had run by, almost silently. Sasuke had never found out who the men in black were, and he had never pressed. Neji had never liked it when anyone would push for anything, and when he didn't get his way, the brunet would often get violent. He didn't want to be at the receiving end of Neji's honed martial arts skills, so things often went Neji's way when it came to things to do, what to buy, what to talk about and other things along that vein.
"I meant, uh, eh, well. . ." Sasuke's eyes narrowed. Neji usually acted like a spoiled princess, and he maintained that 'eh', 'uh' and 'um' were not words. So the fact that he had used not one but two of them in one sentence made Sasuke very suspicious.
"Neji . . ." Sasuke's glare was almost as potent as Itachi's, at times.
"It's private." Neji finally blurted out. "Deidara sempai would kill me if I told you his secrets." The look on the brunet's face left Sasuke in no doubt that it was true. He could see it in the way Deidara's fist raced out, and Sasori turned to the side, making sure that Deidara's deadly hand got nowhere near his body.
Sasori seemed more cautious than he had ever been when fighting with Itachi, Sasuke noted. There was an element to the way their limbs flew and their eyes sparked off each other that was not quite . . . right.
Something was off about the way their glances lingered longer than necessary, and Sasuke wasn't about to question.
But Itachi had always been more astute than his little brother, and much, much, more meddling.
He was still holding out for the day he could finally see the proud red-head on his knees.
Hey peeps, it's Nychta, back from the dead!
Anyways, this chapter is brought to you by an epic book: 'I am NOT a serial killer', by Dan Wells. Peoples, go read it. Now. This I command you. The second one's called 'Mr. Monster', and it's just as good as the first one.
dammit, I love sociopaths!
BTW, this is a question for anyone who has ever read Cate Tiernan's books (AkumaNoDanna. . .can I now count you as a fan/WTF is going on with Incy? Or do you like mr. tall, handsome, family killer MWAHAHAHA? As for myself, I like Asher. On principle. Because I've read Anita Blake.) Who do you like better, Hunter or Morgan (from the sweep series)?
Also, anyone who reads Laurell k. Hamilton's books. . .who is better, Anita or Merry (or if you get right down to it, Frost or Asher)?
Anyways, I was in a really emo mood, so that meant I spent most of my time writing the storm tree, and a new sasodei songfic (bring me to life, by evanescence. Yes, it is written in Sasori's slightly ooc pov).
Okay. So here is what I want you to do.
Leave a review, informing me about my chapter (or ranting about the books I've mentioned XD), even if it is just 'coolio!' or 'crapola'.
Then, please go take my poll, as I'm trying to decide what to type up next, and It's been hell deciding.
If you have an idea for a storyline (any pairing, even het) I'll jot it down somewhere, and may get around to typing it.
Anyways, I'm off to write the rest of my oneshot.
Nychta is OUT.
Night night.