Sasori tucked a strand of Deidara's hair behind his ear. There was a small freckle on the lobe and he leaned down and licked it.

Deidara closed his eyes nervously and glanced at the door. Thank God Hidan is the worst at stealth he thought. But…still…he turned his attention back to Sasori, who seemed less active than usual. Deidara was certain that Sasori would have demanded he take off his clothes by now, but he was still just grasping Deidara's thigh firmly and kissing him on the neck.

Sasori drew away and sighed. He looked into Deidara's eyes, then lay his head on his shoulder. Deidara looked down. He looked like such a little boy, all curled up like that. The Iwa nin smiled to himself, amused by how innocent and simple the scene looked. He rubbed the guy's back affectionately. He knew they'd discussed earlier that they were merely friends with benefits—not boyfriends—but here they were.

"I'm tired," Sasori said suddenly. As if on cue, he yawned widely. Deidara had never really seen Sasori yawn, and it was really fucking cute. Sasori stretched out his arms a little.

"You wanna go back to your room then?" Deidara asked softly. Sasori said nothing, just dug his head into Deidara's chest like it was a pillow. He shifted the rest of his body in an effort to get comfortable. It was damn well clear that he wanted to spend the night with Deidara, there, in the workshop. It was vastly different to their usual routine. Deidara almost smiled to himself until he remembered Hidan.

Jesus.

The door didn't lock, and even if it did, what nin couldn't disable it? Actually…Deidara thought. Hidan is probably one of the exceptions for a man at his level…

But he couldn't take any chances. Hidan would definitely notice that Sasori wasn't in his room tonight, and then he'd visit Deidara to ask if he knew of the puppeteer's whereabouts. He'd see Deidara's empty room, put one and one together, and the two of them would be doomed. If Hidan wasn't such a bigmouth, the problem probably wouldn't seem as devastating as it did.

Goddammit, Deidara cursed again. He heard Sasori sniffle and he looked down again. The redhead looked well and truly asleep…at least, Deidara hoped he was. He scanned the room for a distraction. Sasori's childhood puppet—the one that had gotten broken—was lying on the table where Sasori had left it. Deidara reached into one of his deep pockets and drew out a small bird. It was tiny, and probably wouldn't last, but he needed it. With a simple hand gesture, the bird came to life, enlarging just a bit as it did so. Without Deidara telling it, it understood completely. It flapped over to the puppet, took of a few of its hairs between its beak and returned awkwardly to Deidara, trying its best not to drag the thing on the table and make a racket. Deidara accepted the puppet, glad that the hair wasn't brittle and didn't break. He looked down at Sasori as the little bird flew away and rested itself on a pile of wet clay in the corner, eyeing Deidara suspiciously. Deidara honestly had no idea whether or not it would work, but Sasori did say it had been a childhood favourite. He shifted a little to the right, away from Sasori, whose hand slipped a bit from his chest due to the movement. Deidara lowered the puppet, watching Sasori carefully. He heard his little clay helper flutter its wings impatiently in the corner.

I'm coming, I'm coming, un.

To Deidara's delight, Sasori wrapped his arms around the puppet, a subconscious realization that this was his favourite…and was it just Deidara, or did he kind of smile? Deidara smiled to himself despite his previously frantic state. He pondered for a moment, stuck in his own decision of whether or not to kiss Sasori on the head or something. He felt himself blush a little.

Would that seem too…?

The bird flew over and nudged his head with a talon. It was soft but its purpose was crystal clear. Deidara itched the spot and swatted the air where he knew the bird was. It flapped angrily.

He leaned forward slowly and kissed Sasori's head, wondering what his danna would think when he woke up and saw the puppet instead of Deidara.

He'll never know when I made the exchange, he reassured himself. I can say that I left early in the morning, and didn't want to wake him up.

He opened and closed the door carefully, not wanting to wake him up at the last moment. The bird shot threw the gap in the door almost right before it closed. It landed on Deidara's head, next to his blonde ponytail, and dug its talons into his hair for stability.

"How was it?"

Deidara stepped back in surprise. Hidan was there, in his room, legs spread wide and arms stretched by his side. On Deidara's bed. He looked totally at home, and was smirking at Deidara arrogantly. Deidara gulped.

"What do you mean?"

"You and Sasori," Hidan leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees and clasping his hands together, his eyes glittering with malice, like he knew he'd caught Deidara red-handed.

Wait—did he?

No. He couldn't have.

He and Sasori's love-fest had lasted all but five, maybe eight minutes. There was no way Hidan could have seen unless he was in the room. And he was not in the room. The bird on top of his head chirped irritably. Deidara grit his teeth. He wanted to crush that bird.

"Stop playing games, Hidan," he said, choosing a neutral statement that suggested nothing. He glared at the Jashinist in what he hoped was in supreme annoyance. Hidan broke into a laugh.

"Calm down, dude," he patted the spot next to him on the bed. "I was just kidding. Fucking hell, you're funny,"

Deidara rolled his eyes and resisted the urge to sigh in relief. He felt Hidan's eyes watch him like a hawk's as he walked over and plopped in his ass next to him.

"You need to ease up," Hidan nudged him in a supposedly light-hearted way, but since it was Hidan, it came across as rough and mean. The bird squawked, alerting the Jashinist to its presence. Deidara braced himself for a nasty comment on it, but it didn't come.

"Okay, so tonight I couldn't keep an eye on him," he explained, sounding sheepish, as if he was reporting back to Deidara. He rubbed the back of his head. "Kakuzu kept me occupied,"

"With what?"

"Oh you know. Cleaning heads…and all that,"

Hidan pouted and continued. "But that old geezer chose a good night. Itachi didn't sneak off somewhere—and Sasori was with you," he looked at Deidara pointedly, but there was no suspicion in his voice or his eyes. Even so, the Iwa nin couldn't bring himself to look at him directly.

Hidan sighed in what seemed to be genuine disappointment that he couldn't make any notable progress. "Valentine's Day is only three days away," he threw up his arms in exasperation. After all, before Hidan had spilled the beans on his little Itachi/ Sasori investigation, he had been spilling his heart out about Valentine's. The funniness of someone like Hidan wanting another half almost made Deidara laugh if it wasn't for the fact that Deidara felt the same. He almost reached up to give Hidan a squeeze on the shoulder, but then thought better of it.

"Um…yeah,"

"Aren't you, like…worried at all?" Hidan blurted nervously.

Deidara looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "About what?"

"Worried that you'll spend the rest of your life without having spent one Valentine's properly," Hidan chewed on his bottom lip. "And we're in this fucked-up organization. I'm not really one to be 'fraid of dying, but our chances are so much fucking higher,"

He seemed to choke on the last two words. Deidara remained silent. Hidan furrowed his brow and smacked him on the arm, hard.

"?" Deidara rubbed his arm and glared at Hidan again.

"Don't tell anyone I'm telling you this shit, okay?" Hidan burbled. Deidara laughed.

"I'm not gonna tell on you Hidan," he gave the Jashinist a friendly punch. "You should ease up too,"

Hidan could only muster a weak smile, but didn't say anything.

The moonlight spilled through the cracks in the ceiling. In the darkness of the room, it was silvery and pretty fucking romantic. Itachi thought so.

The abandoned stone compound had been cleared out a long time ago, and Itachi had always made sure it was his. A thick lawn of moss covered the ground, making it the perfect location for canoodling with a hidden lover. The vegetation that swamped the place oft reminded Itachi of Zetsu, but surely a guy as busy as him would never pay a visit to a place as dilapidated as this.

"Itachi…," the name slipped effortlessly from Suigetsu's lips, from betwixt his gleaming sharp teeth, as Itachi pulled down the mist nin's pants. Now they were both naked, blanketed beneath Itachi's Akatsuki coat. Itachi looked down at Suigetsu. All thoughts of his life outside of the guy left his mind as he pressed his lips on Suigetsu's, repressing the true hunger he felt for him, because he knew Suigetsu would take the initiative to make things rougher. To Itachi's elation, Suigetsu reached up and wrapped one of his deliciously muscled arms around Itachi's waist and pulled him closer. His other hand took a fistful of Itachi's hair and pushed the Uchiha's head down, forcing him to delve deeper into Suigetsu's own mouth.