Found
I is for Ineluctable
O O O
First off: There were boats. Lots of them.
Second off: There were gulls. Lots of them.
Third off: There were people. Too many of them.
And Deidara didn't like crowds.
Especially when he had to pretend to be married and lugging around a deadbeat brother-in-law in crowds. Though, admittedly, this discovery of annoyance was the first of its kind.
He jerked Sakura forward by their connected hands, and she stumbled a bit.
"What the hell was that for?"
"You were going too slow, yeah."
Her hand clenched around his dangerously. "Well maybe if you didn't walk so damn fast," she mumbled under her breath, scoffing. After a second, though, she perked up. "Hey, where'd Mako go?"
Deidara set his jaw. "Kisame. His name is Kisame. And he went to buy us tickets, yeah."
She moved in closer to him, pressing her whole right side against his left, their hands still tightly clenched together. It was forced and awkward and downright uncomfortable, but it was what they had to do.
He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. "What?"
She buried her face into his arm, nuzzling his bicep with her nose. To anyone else it would just look like an innocent display of affection, but Deidara knew better. He patiently waited for her to speak.
"Where did we get the money?" she muttered under her breath—on a sigh.
He stretched a faux smile and leaned slightly toward her. "We didn't."
"Then how is he buying tickets?" A little angrier this time, but that was fine. Nobody was paying attention.
"Swiping them."
She nuzzled particularly hard and hissed, "What?"
He shifted his shoulder so that it bumped her nose, and she drew back, frowning at him.
"He has to," Deidara said, glaring at nothing in particular. "Unless you'd like to strip down and prostitute for us, yeah."
"Of course not!"
Quickly, he wrapped an arm around her side and pushed her to him once more. "Stop that. You'll blow our cover."
She snorted. "We're failing miserably at it, anyway."
"Maybe if you were a better actor, we wouldn't."
"Oh?" she half laughed, half sneered, trying to draw away, but he held her tight. "And I suppose you're doing any better?"
"I'm not yelling at my significant other on a crowded boardwalk, now am I, Keiko?"
"For your information, Makoto, normal couples do fight."
"They also do a hell of a lot more than hold hands, yeah."
"You're holding my hip! It's different!"
Three flashes of beige waved in front of Deidara's face, and he forgot what he was going to say.
Kisame grinned behind said flashes of beige. "Got them."
Deidara immediately released Sakura's hand and snatched one of the tickets, reading quickly over them. "They're legit?"
"Of course," Kisame replied, handing Sakura hers. "They're blank, too. We just have to write our names in."
"Seriously?" Deidara asked, inspecting his ticket. And sure enough, the name line was blank, with the departure time and other necessary information scrawled sloppily beneath it. "These people were stupid, yeah." He watched Sakura pull a pen out of her pouch, scribble on her hand to make sure it worked, and then press the ticket against her thigh so that she could write her alias.
When she finished, she handed the pen to Deidara, and he messily signed "Oonishi Makoto." He passed the pen on to Kisame, who repeated the process, then tossed it back to Sakura, who pocketed it.
"We're ready?" Deidara asked.
Kisame nodded. "They'll think it's odd that we don't have any luggage."
Sakura shrugged. "It's none of their business anyway."
"Their business or not, we have to keep it believable, yeah," Deidara mumbled, leaning against a lamppost.
"Bandits stole it, then," Kisame said, folding his arms. "It's not uncommon."
"Yes, but then why didn't they steal our tickets?" Sakura asked warily, glancing around for anyone who was possibly listening.
"We had them in our pockets at the time," Deidara answered simply, pushing himself up to stand straight. "I think our story's okay now, yeah. Let's get moving."
They followed him down the pier, near the harbor, and through the gates leading to the ship.
The ship itself was fairly large; it looked to be either some sort of cruise liner or a large passenger ship. Many people were boarding in front of them, rushing to and fro, clutching small children by their arms or hands, dragging luggage behind them on wheels or slinging it over their shoulders.
Deidara frowned. "This isn't going to work."
Kisame made a grunt of agreement. "I didn't think it would."
"So what now?" Sakura asked, glaring at Deidara like he'd just thrown her into a lake.
Oh, and how he wished he had done so. A long, long time ago.
Come to think of it, simply kidnapping her for him and Kisame's own ends was a stupid idea, in retrospect. Honestly, what had they been thinking? That she would resist? That she'd come quietly? That she'd just wholeheartedly agree to heal them without being an obnoxious little fuck—
"Deidara, take Sakura and get us some luggage."
Deidara's frame stiffened and he took a shocked step back. "Me? Kisame, I can't get us any luggage!"
Kisame scowled at him. "Keep it down. If I go slinking around again, they're going to notice that we're up to something."
"But me?" Deidara asked again, giving him a disbelieving look. "I'm terrible at lies! You know I am!"
Sakura scoffed. "You're apparently a damn good actor."
"Yeah?" Deidara said, growing angrier by the second. "Then you go fucking jack us some luggage." He waved a hand toward her, the teeth on it gritted and gnashing.
"Fine." She grabbed that same hand, dragging him toward a shop. "Let's go, Makoto."
Deidara stumbled forward, throwing Kisame a glare over his shoulder.
Kisame waved.
O O O
"So how do we go about this?"
Deidara's hand tightened around hers. "Go about what, yeah?"
"Well…you know. Getting luggage," she whispered.
He shrugged. "Just act casual about it. Play the part. Act like a happy wife."
Sakura took a second to think about it as he led her toward a gift shop. How did happy wives act, anyway? What did they talk about?
She tried to think back to the few conversations she'd heard in Konoha, and the fact that she didn't feel an overwhelming film of despair over her thoughts at the mention of her hometown didn't even register with her.
The older ones talked about nothing in particular. Usually business things.
The younger ones talked about—
"Start a conversation," Deidara hissed, tugging her closer to him.
"Babies."
His steps hitched.
Bright red dusted over Sakura's cheeks. "Just…just go with it."
"Babies," he repeated incredulously, never turning to look at her. "Okay, what about babies?"
"I want one."
She saw his shoulders stiffen and his hand twitched. "You…want a baby."
"Yes. I want a baby boy."
"Well, what if I said I wanted a girl?"
"I'd say that you're crazy," Sakura said as Deidara held open the shop door for her. When he returned, her hand was right back inside his. "Girls are too difficult."
"Funny thing for you to be saying that, yeah," he muttered.
"What'd you say?" Sakura asked, slightly indignant.
"I said kiss me."
"What?"
He flashed a charming grin. "You're so cute."
Sakura almost sneered, but then she remembered the game they were playing. Deidara really was a good actor. Either that or he wasn't as partial to the idea of acting like newlyweds as she thought.
So she pressed closer to him, smiling and laughing gently. "Don't do that to me. You'll make my heart stop."
He picked up a large bag and slung it over his shoulder. "Well, we wouldn't want that, yeah."
She could've sworn she'd heard a bit of sarcasm in his tone, and she bumped him with her hip.
He stumbled slightly as they walked right out the door.
And then the alarm went off.
"Shit!" He grabbed her hand a little tighter and took off through the throngs of people, as far away from the store as he could get.
Their feet tapped against the wood of the pier as they darted between buildings and even over some, until they were completely out of the pier, on a grassy stretch of land just before the harbor that led off into a long jetty.
Deidara tripped over a rock here, tried to catch himself and failed, and pulled Sakura down with him quite by accident.
She landed on top of him, and besides the grunt he gave out at her weight and the rocks no doubt pressing hard into his back, he was quite soft and hard and warm all at the same time. Contradiction, yes, she knew that.
He caught his breath a second later, arms instinctively—or so she hoped—around her waist. And since her face was buried in the crook of his neck, she could very easily feel and hear the way his breaths came slower, evening out.
"Are you—" she began, but he cut her off in a whisper.
"Someone's coming."
"Where's the bag?"
"Just start talking"
"Again?"
"Do it."
She sat up just a bit, laying her head on his collarbone so that her face was toward the ocean. She heard the footsteps and began to speak. "I don't think I'm ready."
"For what, yeah?"
"For a kid." She felt him tense beneath her. All part of the image. So she'd play along. "I mean…it's just… It's really soon."
His arms slipped so that he could rest his hands on her waist, and when she looked at his face, he seemed slightly…out of it. He really was a good actor. Well, came along with being an artist, she supposed. "Don't get me wrong," she said, sliding down so that she straddled his thighs, and she heard him grunt again. She sat up straight and stared down at him, hands limp against his chest. "I'd love to…to be with you forever. I'd love to have something to keep us together and that would be a wonderful experience."
She noticed, rather absently, that these were words she would have spoken to Sasuke once upon a time. And it was so much easier to pretend that the face with the thick fringe of blond falling away to reveal brilliant blue eyes taking in every inch of her expression wasn't the face of an insane man who'd kidnapped her and killed far more.
Then again, Sasuke was no better.
His thumbs traced small little circles just above her hipbones, and she shivered. It gave her the chills, even as she leaned down to brush her nose against his. "I would want nothing more," she whispered, "than to have your baby."
The look on his face was slightly heart-wrenching, and she didn't even have time to think about it as he placed one hand behind her head and pressed her lips to his, leaning up into her, mouth moving against hers in a way that was familiar and absolutely foreign all at the same time.
She was surprised, to say the least. He'd been a flippant, horny bastard for the most part of the journey—not someone she'd easily fall in love with. Not that she was even beginning to think about simply being able to bear him now, but his behavior was definitely taking a step in the right direction.
Especially so when he sat up, one hand supporting them both, planted flat on the grass, and the other threading into the hair at the back of her neck, lips still tracing hers, tongue occasionally skimming over her bottom lip or her teeth.
The people who'd been chasing them melted away, the fact that he was her kidnapper completely disappeared from her mind, and the niggling thought that he was the enemy absolutely didn't mean a thing, because this was what she'd been waiting for. This was what she'd been hoping and wanting all her life: She'd been waiting for someone to kiss her like it was the last kiss he'd ever get, hold her like he didn't want to hurt but just couldn't summon up the will to let go, and put every fiber and essence of his being into how he moved with her.
He pulled back only slightly to take a heated breath, more of a sighing groan than anything, before he was right back, pushing her in such a way that she was forced to arch and sit a bit higher than him, her neck bent. She put her hands over either side of his jaw, fingers barely brushing over his ears, and he mumbled something against her that she didn't even really take the time to register.
His other hand moved to rub up and down her side soothingly, his upper body strength enough to keep them both upright. And then his tongue was an insisting presence against the crease of her lips, and she parted them a little more. He was there in an instant, mumbling some other word she didn't pay attention to, until she timidly touched his tongue with hers.
The kiss took a deeper turn because he angled his head in such a way that he could map out every inch of her mouth, and he was so overpowering that it was all she could do but meet him eagerly and just barely run her fingers along the tendons in his neck and over his jawline.
"Excuse me, sir?"
He broke apart from her with a gasp, panting and still pressed tightly to her, arms attempting to keep her still because Sakura suddenly wanted more, and she'd been reduced to a mewling little girl in his lap, pawing at his shoulders and brushing her lips up and along his neck, begging him to come back.
Deidara looked up at the man who had interrupted them. "Wha…what is it?"
"You haven't seen a couple with a bag come by here, have you?" The man was flushed. He'd obviously been observing them for a moment.
"I think someone ran past here…ah, oh…" He shuddered when Sakura rolled her hips in toward him pleadingly. "They went south, yeah."
The man nodded. "Thank you."
Then he was gone and Deidara was back with some sort of growl and just about to press his wonderful mouth against hers again when a foghorn sounded off in the distance.
Sakura stopped immediately and looked toward the harbor. "The boat."
Deidara copied her, hands still around her, cheeks still tinged a dusty red, heart still beating rapidly against Sakura's chest. "We have to go now." He looked back at Sakura.
And then the situation hit Sakura full-force, and she blushed darkly.
Deidara pulled away from her immediately and rubbed the back of his hand against his cheek, as if trying to rub away the redness. "Come on."
She stood, dusting off her legs and pants, smoothing back her hair. "Where's the bag?"
He pulled it from underneath the back of his shirt and slung it over his shoulder. "It's taken care of. Now let's go meet Kisame, yeah."
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