Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters, unless otherwise stated. In this case, I only own Kimi and her village.

Author's Note: Sorry it took me so long to update. I've run into a bit of a block, but I'm slowly working through it. It doesn't help that I also have a 10-12 page paper in my composition class . . . ugh. Anyway, here's a bit more Deidara. I think I'm starting to like the kid-him. (hugs) He's so cute! I hope you all enjoy this little interaction -- this little chapter. It's one of my favorites that I've written, but I think that's thanks to Deidara. lol. Anyway, enjoy! I'm going to work on my paper now . . . and the next chapter intermittantly . . . yeah . . .

Edit: I was reading through this chapter and realized I'd contradicted myself with Deidara's comment about his mother and then him saying he grew up in an orphanage. Oops. It's fixed now. Sorry, yeah!

XX

Deidara saw it coming. It was not the least bit surprising. She had cleaned everything else, so the next logical step would be the bedrooms, right? He had fully prepared himself to turn her away – to declare that his room was his room and that he did not care whether or not he could see the floor through all the clutter. However, when she appeared smiling at his door, the boy could not – for some inexplicable reason – refuse her.

"Is Tobi with you?" he asked dryly. Kimi shook her head. Heaving a sigh, Deidara stepped out of the doorway and motioned her into the room. "Come on in, yeah."

He closed the door behind her and walked to flop back onto his bed. Kimi surveyed the room with arched eyebrows, making Deidara's eyes narrow. "Don't do that," he snapped. "You're not my mother, yeah."

Kimi glanced at him apologetically. "Oh, sorry."

Deidara scowled and rolled over on the bed. "Don't touch anything on the desk, unless you want your hands blown off, yeah."

She chuckled. "Thanks for the warning." The pair lapsed into silence, Deidara staring at the peeling paint on the wall in front of him. After a long moment, Kimi asked, "Are all of these dirty?"

Blinking, Deidara rolled back over. "What?"

Kimi motioned to the clothes scattered across the floor. "Are all of these dirty? If they are, I'll do a load of laundry."

"Oh, yeah."

Deidara passively watched Kimi work for a while, attempting to decide what exactly to make of the woman. He eventually became bored with watching her scrub soot and who-knows-what-else off of the floor. Stifling a yawn, Deidara reached over to his bed-side table and snatched up a lump of clay. It was not any of his exploding stuff, but – he glanced slyly at Kimi – he almost wished it was. He would definitely enjoy giving her a good scare – a little explosion to remind her who she was dealing with.

Smirking to himself, Deidara began working the clay with the mouths in his hands. Maybe he would try to make some sort of bug this time. Would a dragonfly go faster than his normal exploding-clay birds? He was always looking out for new styles for his art.

Deidara was so consumed by the clay in his hands that he jerked in surprise when Kimi spoke. "If you don't mind me asking, Deidara, how old are you?"

The blonde boy jerked his chin up proudly. "Thirteen, yeah. You?"

Kimi threw him a smile. "Sixteen." Her smile faded slightly as she continued scrubbing a particularly tough spot. "Tobi told me about some of the jobs you all get hired to do," she stated. "Aren't you a bit young to be involved in this sort of work?"

Deidara snorted. "If I'm good, what does it matter how old I am, yeah?" he demanded in return, his voice slightly defensive. He got enough from Sasori about his age without this civilian butting in.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to offend you. I was just curious is all."

The boy grunted and returned to his work. Maybe he would make a spider. Spiders, after all, go unnoticed for the most part. He could sneak his bombs into the middle of a target building without any sort of alarm going up. If he managed to figure out how to condense a large quantity of explosives into a tiny arachnid, that would make it all the better. He would send one little spider into the middle of a building and then –

"So how did you get involved with Akatsuki, anyway?"

Pulled from his thoughts, Deidara scowled at the woman. "You ask a lot of questions, yeah."

Kimi smiled sheepishly. "You don't have to answer me if you don't want to. It's just really quite in here. I was trying to start up a conversation to help pass the time."

"I take it you don't like the quiet, yeah."

She shrugged one shoulder. "I don't really mind, but it's nice to talk to people and get to know them – especially when you're going to be spending a good bit of time around them."

"Well, I wouldn't pry too much if I were you," Deidara advised. "Shinobi don't take kindly to people sticking their noses where they don't belong, yeah."

Kimi dropped her eyes back to her work, muttering. "I've noticed." She sighed. "Never mind. Forget I said anything."

Deidara smirked as she continued to scrub the floor. She would learn her place soon enough. Silence returned to the room, and Deidara altered his sculpture into a more bird-like form. He turned it over in his hands for several minutes.

"If you must know, yeah," he said slowly, a slight smile on his face, "I like to blow things up. Some people call it a fetish, but I prefer to call it art. True art is fleeting, and thus explosions are the most wondrous forms of art in the world. I seek perfection in my bombs, though no one seems to quite understand that, yeah."

Kimi glanced at him through the corners of her eyes, continuing to work her way across the tile. "What does that have to do with you being in Akatsuki?"

"I grew up in an orphanage," Deidara continued as if she had not spoken. "We were allowed to attend the Academy, and that's where I discovered my true calling. I could combine being an artist and a shinobi, going on to create bigger and better works of beauty." A wicked grin cracked his lips. "My first great work was born within those walls of my youth. The explosion was magnificent, yeah."

The woman stiffened. "You blew up the orphanage?" she gasped.

Deidara chuckled darkly, tapping his headband. "In case you haven't noticed, Kimi, all of us in Akatsuki are rogue ninja – S-ranked criminals. We've betrayed and been cast out of our villages. That includes your precious Itachi, yeah."

Kimi stared at him. "What did he do?" she asked faintly.

Opening his hands, Deidara pushed a little chakra into the clay bird, animating it. "It's not my place to say," he replied, watching the bird flap up and circle the room. "If you really want to know, ask Itachi himself, yeah."

Her eyes followed the clay animal warily, making Deidara chuckle. "Don't worry. This one's not made of explosive clay. It's just a regular bird – made of animated clay, of course, yeah." He directed it to land on the edge of her bucket.

Kimi peered at the object for several minutes before finally returning to her task. She remained dutifully quiet for the rest of her time spent in his room. Deidara smiled triumphantly to himself, leaning back on his bed. Good. She's scared now, as it should be, yeah.

Time ticked by, and Kimi finally finished scrubbing the worst of the grime off of Deidara's floor. She left without a word to empty out her bucket. When she returned with a basket for his dirty clothes, her eyes flicked one last time around his room, a thoughtful expression on her face.

Deidara scowled slightly at her. "Something wrong, yeah?"

Kimi's reply surprised him. "What's your favorite color, Deidara?"

He stared at her for several seconds, mouth slightly open. "What?"

She met his eyes, smiling. "What's your favorite color?"

"Why do you want to know, yeah?"

Kimi motioned to the walls. "Take a look around you, Deidara. The paint's faded and peeling. It's rather dreary if you ask me – not the best setting for artistic inspiration. With your permission, of course, I'd like to spruce things up a bit. You'll need to pack up anything you don't want me touching yourself, though. I can do it while you're gone on your next mission, so you don't have to be displaced by paint fumes."

Deidara blinked at her. Was she serious? "You want to paint my room, yeah?"

"If you'd like." He continued to stare at Kimi, and she smiled. "You don't have to answer me now. Just let me know before you leave, alright? Oh, and I won't be cooking anything for lunch. There's bread on the counter and sliced meat in the fridge for cold-cut sandwiches. Help yourself when you're hungry."

He nodded in acknowledgement, and she scooped up his clothes and dumped them into the laundry basket. As Kimi stepped through the doorway, Deidara spoke. "Yellow."

Kimi looked back at him. "Hmm?"

The boy gave her a small smile. "Paint it yellow, yeah."