Chapter 10

At midnight Itachi finally took a study break. He checked his cell phone, and frowned as he read Deidara's text, "Don't come." He replied, asking why, but Deidara didn't text back.

So a few minutes later he tried to call him. Still nothing; Itachi got worried. And he didn't even have Konan's phone number, or any of the others' for that matter. He knew Sasori wasn't going to that party, Deidara had told him, but still… What if something bad happened?

In a previous text Deidara had sent Konan's address, and explained that the party was starting at about 10, so Itachi supposed it wasn't nearly over yet.

He shut down his computer, put on his black trench coat, and then quietly made his way outside and to his car. It only took three minutes to get there. He parked in the street since the driveway was full already.

When he knocked at the door, Nagato came to open and let him in, and then Itachi realized, the party was pretty much over. Faint dance music could still be heard, but only three people, Nagato included, were still awake. The others were passed out on the floor – some in sleeping bags, and some simply lying down on the carpet of the living room. He couldn't see Deidara anywhere.

"Yeah you're kinda late," Nagato chuckled drunkenly, "but hey you can come have a drink with us…" He put his hand on Itachi's shoulder, leading him toward the couch where two girls were sitting and drinking.

"Hey you're hot," one of the drunken girls told Itachi.

"But maybe he's also gay!" The other girl chuckled, "All the guys to this party are gay…"

Itachi raised a brow, and then turned to look at Nagato.

"Where are the others?"

"Konan and Yahiko are sleeping in her bedroom…" He said, "Deidara… I don't know… Probably sleeping somewhere…"

"Oh is that the guy with long blonde hair?" The first girl asked, "Cause I think he's still passed out in the bathroom upstairs… With my friend," she pointed at one of the people sleeping on the floor, "we needed to use the bathroom and there was someone puking in this one, so we went upstairs, and then we managed to unlock the door using this," she showed the tiny hair clip in her bangs. "It was like, out of a spying movie or something…" She laughed.

But Itachi had stopped listening to her. He was already on his way upstairs.

He indeed found Deidara lying down on the cold tiled floor of the bathroom. The door was already opened slightly, and there was another guy too, rolled up in a blanket and sleeping in the bath tub, with a joint tucked behind his ear. Itachi pretty much ignored him, and sat down next to Deidara.

He was pale, and there were tear marks on his face. His hair was all loose and messy, and he was curled up in a ball, his body shivering. His cell phone was on the floor, and as Itachi picked it up he saw that the battery was dead. Something else caught his eye, Deidara's long sleeve shirt was dark grey, but on the sleeves it was even darker, as if wet…

"Fuck…" he whispered as he realized it was blood. He also noticed the razor beside the bath tub amongst some other products.

He rolled Deidara on his back and then he rolled up his sleeves. He let out a relieved sigh when he saw that the fresh cuts weren't too deep. He would just need to clean it up and bandage it, and he would be just fine. Physically, that is…

He slid an arm under his shoulders and the other under his knees, ready to pick him up, but then Deidara woke up. Itachi pulled away.

"How are you feeling?" He asked.

The blonde didn't answer. He sat up, and his face turned livid. He turned around and threw up in the toilet. Itachi held his hair and put a comforting hand on his back.

"Go away…" Deidara choked out, "Why did you come? I didn't want you to… to see me like this."

He coughed a few more times, still bent over the toilet, but nothing else was coming out. So he eventually pulled back weakly. He would have crawled back onto the floor, but Itachi took his arm and helped him to his feet.

"No…" he whispered, crying, "Just go…"

"I'm not going anywhere without you all right? Now can you walk?"

"Yeah I'm fine," Deidara said, wiping his teary eyes in frustration.

He pulled away from Itachi, and took a few steps. But then his face became really pale again, and he leaned on the wall for support, breathing hard… And then he collapsed into Itachi's arms.

"Sure you are…" The raven muttered sarcastically.

He scooped him up into his arms and went to walk down the stairs carefully. At least the male weighed next to nothing, and besides Itachi was really strong. The three people on the couch looked at him funny. But at least Nagato snapped out of it, and offered his help.

The red-head opened the front door for Itachi, then he followed him outside and opened the car door so that Itachi could sit Deidara in the passenger seat.

"Thanks," he said.

"Uh… no problem," Nagato said. "You're gonna bring him home, or…?"

"Yeah I don't usually let my friends sleep on bathroom floors…"

Nagato just shrugged and went back inside. Itachi sighed, annoyed, and walked around the car to take place in the driver seat. Deidara didn't wake up during the short drive.

It was a little complicated to carry him while getting inside the house as quietly as possible, and then upstairs to his bedroom, but he managed. He put him down softly on his large bed, and he immediately got rid of his stained shirt. He went to the bathroom to get the few things he needed – some disinfectant and bandages.

Deidara didn't wake up either as he treated his injured arms. Itachi hoped he was ready, because in the morning, badly hungover or not, he would get a hell of a speech…

When his arms were cleaned and wrapped up in bandages, he went to put the stuff back in the bathroom. After that he returned to his bedroom and closed the door. He proceeded to take off Deidara's pants – otherwise he wouldn't be sleeping very comfortably in skinny jeans with his wallet and keys in the pockets – leaving him in just his boxers. Then he placed the sheets and comforter up to his shoulders. Deidara moaned in his sleep, and turned to sleep on his side.

Itachi also stripped to his boxers and crawled in his bed. It was king-sized, therefore way big enough for the both of them. But Itachi placed himself in the middle of the mattress to be closer to Deidara.

He sighed repeatedly as he tried to find sleep. He was disappointed in Deidara, but at the same time, he didn't want to judge him before knowing what had truly happened at that party.

…

When Deidara woke up he felt sick, weak, and a little dizzy. He was sleeping in a much comfier bed than his own, though. He lifted himself up on his elbows painfully, glancing around. He was in Itachi's bedroom. The laptop computer was open on the working desk, with some documents and notebooks all around it.

The door suddenly opened to Itachi himself. He was wearing blue jeans and black t-shirt, with his hair loosely tied, and he had a glass of water in his hand. Without a word, he closed the door behind him, and went to put the glass down on the bedside table. Then he sat in his computer chair and rolled it so that he was closer to the bed, facing him.

"How're you feeling?" Itachi finally asked, crossing his arms and leaning back in his seat.

Deidara sat up completely, hardly repressing a pained moan. His whole body hurt. He leaned back into the pillows, pulling the sheets up to cover himself.

"Not so good, I suppose," Itachi sighed, "So, what do you remember?"

Blurry flashes of people dancing, and Deidara actually dancing with them, came back to his painful head. He cleared his throat slightly, and started talking in a rasp voice.

"I wanted to… to get drunk before you got there. Well, not too much, but…" He paused, taking a sip of water.

Itachi frowned, "Why?"

"To be more confident I guess... I just had three drinks though, and maybe a shooter… so I didn't think it was that bad."

"Just three?" Itachi tilted his head slightly, "Well, what was it anyway?"

"Konan said…" He hesitated as he remembered the name of the cocktail, "Long island."

Itachi chuckled in understanding. "Do you know what's in that?"

"No…"

"You can have gin, whiskey, tequila, rum and vodka all together."

"Shit…" Deidara muttered as he felt his stomach churn.

"Well depending on the recipe you add some other stuff, coke, orange juice, whatever, but you see my point."

"Yeah."

"Do you remember what happened after that?"

"I… danced. If you can call it dancing… I… after that I just went in the bathroom cause I felt sick. I don't remember much… I…"

His blue eyes widened as he remembered something about cutting himself in the bathroom. He quickly glanced at his arms under the sheets. They were bandaged. He looked at Itachi. His face was expressionless.

"Deidara you're gonna have to stop cutting yourself."

The blonde swallowed hard, fighting back tears, and glanced away.

Itachi continued, "I want you to tell me why…"

"I can't," he replied.

"Why not?" He asked softly.

"It's private," Deidara whispered stubbornly.

"You don't have to go into details here. Just tell me, what makes you feel the need to cut yourself? What emotions… what thoughts?"

Deidara couldn't help but snap at him, "What, you're a therapist now?"

Itachi held his gaze, "Would you rather I make you to see a real one?"

The smaller male's shoulders slouched and after a moment of silence, he whispered, "It's… usually because of the nightmares… Or when I feel really shitty… About myself. When I remember… stuff that happened to me. And… doing this helps me calm down. It's like a reflex."

Itachi got up and came to sit by his side on the bed. He locked eyes with him intensely. "I want you to stop. Whenever you wake up in the middle of the night, feeling terrible after some nightmare, I want you to call me, no matter how late. Do you understand?"

Deidara's heart squeezed painfully in his chest. Why was Itachi being so kind, when he didn't even deserve it? A few tears rolled down his cheeks.

"Why are you being…" he said in a broken voice, "so nice to me?"

"Cause I care about you, and I want to help you. Get that information in your head and stop asking that question already. Now, do you want to take a shower?"

"…Yeah. Shit, wait, what time is it?"

"It's almost one. Don't worry; I called at your work already. Naruto gave me the number," he explained.

"Thanks," Deidara muttered. He felt guilty that Itachi had to do all this for him.

Itachi got up and walked out of the room. When he came back he had a towel in his hands. He handed it to Deidara.

"You can cover yourself with this while you go to the bathroom. I put your clothes in the laundry machine…"

"Thanks," Deidara whispered, embarrassed.

"It's just that I wouldn't want my brother to see you naked and fantasize about you."

Deidara rolled his eyes, but he got up and wrapped the towel around his waist. He still had his boxers on, so it wouldn't have been such a big deal. But he supposed Itachi had wanted to lighten up the mood with this little joke, and Deidara was thankful for that.

He went to the bathroom, which was almost right in front of Itachi's bedroom, actually. This simple room was enough to impress him. The decoration was in tints of lavender, emerald green and white, and there were a few plants in the corner. There was a large bath tub that looked kind of like an interior spa, actually, and also a shower stall. So he went in there and started washing himself. He took off the bandages; he supposed Itachi would want to make clean ones afterwards.

There was a rather wide selection of shampoo bottles and other cleaning and beauty products, for the whole family, he supposed. So he just chose one randomly. It didn't smell as good as Itachi's hair, so he figured it wasn't his. He enjoyed the warm water, it was cleansing for his sore and hurt body. It was indeed hurt, not only his arms, he also had scratches and bruises, mostly on his legs. He'd probably been stumbling and falling everywhere while he was drunk, he thought darkly. How stupid he'd been to drink those strong cocktails really fast…

When he was done he looked at himself in the mirror. He was a little pale, but other than that he looked okay. Thanks to Itachi, of course, he thought with another pang in his chest. If he hadn't picked him up he would've probably slept on the bathroom floor all night long… He was like his guardian angel or something – except Deidara felt like he really didn't deserve it.

He sighed, picked up his boxers - but didn't put them back on - and wrapped the towel around his hips. When he returned to Itachi's bedroom, the raven was working on his computer. But the bed was made neatly, and a little pile of clothes rested on it.

"You can put that on while your clothes are in the dryer…" Itachi said, and added teasingly, "Don't worry I won't look."

Deidara chuckled, closed the door, and proceeded to get dressed. Itachi lent him some comfy black sweats. They were a little bit too big, but it felt comforting wearing those clothes. The fabric was soft, and just the fact that they belonged to Itachi somehow warmed his heart.

He sat on the bed, and looking towards Itachi, he saw that he was playing Portal 2 on his computer.

"I thought you had a shit load of school work?" He asked teasingly.

"Study break," Itachi said defensively.

"…Right."

The raven paused his game and turned to look at him. He seemed thoughtful for a moment, and then he got up and walked out of the room. Deidara frowned, but Itachi came back a few seconds later with a hair brush.

"What're you doing?"

"What does it look like?" Itachi replied as he sat on the bed behind him, and started brushing his long hair.

"You really have an obsession or something?"

"Does it bother you?"

"No…"

"Then stop whining."

"I'm not whining…"

When Itachi finished brushing his hair, he returned to the bathroom, this time to get some clean bandages. Deidara was embarrassed as he looked down at his arms.

"Pretty gross huh?" He said shyly.

Itachi didn't reply. But when he was all done, he locked eyes with him.

"If you can't stop doing this for you, then stop for me," he said.

Deidara's lips parted, but no sound came out. He simply nodded, his eyes still locked with Itachi's.

"Promise," Itachi insisted.

"Yeah… I promise."

…

On Wednesday evening Itachi came home late. He'd stayed at the gym longer than usual, training, and using that time to think about everything that happened with Deidara lately. He was doing a lot of progress, and he wanted to keep it up. They were texting each other everyday, and talking over the phone every night. Itachi enjoyed those moments, he didn't even care if it cut back on his sleep. Itachi was kind of tired to wait for Deidara to make the first move, though. It was kind of taking too long, and Itachi was craving some more… well, intimacy.

So he decided, when they talked tonight, he would invite Deidara to go out during the weekend, just the two of them, so that he could make a move, maybe kiss him, maybe more.

The rest of his family had already finished eating dinner, and his parents were watching some drama show in the living room. Naruto and Sasuke were in their bedroom, probably doing homework – or fucking. Itachi went to sit with his parents.

When the show cut to the commercial, Minato turned to look at him.

"Did you want to ask us something?"

"Why do you automatically think I want to ask you something? Maybe I just want to spend some time with you guys."

"Oh, great," he smiled.

"Actually I did want to ask something."

"I knew it," his smile disappeared, and he pretended to be wounded.

Itachi laughed, "It's about the Christmas vacations this year…"

"What about it?"

Every year since Minato was married to Mikoto, he rented a house in Miami for the whole family to spend a week there for Christmas.

"Can I invite Deidara?" He asked, cutting straight to the point.

Mikoto perked up, "Is he your boyfriend now?"

"Not yet."

She smiled, "Oh! Itachi, you're gonna have your first boyfriend soon."

Itachi ignored her and looked intently at his step-father.

"Well sure you can bring him," Minato shrugged, "No problem. He seems nice, and I trust your judgment."

"Thanks Minato I appreciate."

But his step-dad didn't reply; the commercial break was finished and his beloved tv show had returned. Itachi went to his room.

Later that night, he was lying down in his bed, reading some sci-fi novel his mother had bought recently. He didn't want to go to sleep even though it was almost 2 am. He was waiting for Deidara's phone call, which usually happened around this time. It had become some sort of ritual.

Sure enough, five minutes later his cell phone started vibrating.

"Hi," Itachi smiled.

"Hey! Did I wake you up?"

"Nope, what're you doing?" Itachi asked, rolling around to lie down on his back and putting his book away.

"…Writing."

"I wanna read your stories," Itachi said.

"They're not even finished. I can't write endings."

"I wanna read what you've got anyway," Itachi insisted, but on a light, teasing tone.

"No… Look I don't wanna talk about that. I wanted to ask you if you wanna do something this weekend?"

"Huh, I wanted to ask you the same thing, how convenient."

Deidara laughed, "Actually I have tickets for a show, on Saturday night…"

"But I wanted to bring you to the village…"

"But I already have the tickets! I got them for me and Konan, a couple months ago… But yeah."

"So I'm just your replacement?" Itachi wasn't really mad, he was just messing with the guy.

"No! Of course not! I'd rather go with you… If you like the band."

"What band?"

"Within temptation."

"Never heard of them."

"Just go on your laptop I'll send you a couple songs," Deidara suggested.

Itachi got up and opened his laptop. They logged in on their msn account, and hung up on the phone to continue chatting online instead. Deidara sent him five songs, saying they were pretty much his favorites from the band, and came from different albums, so that he'd have a pretty good idea of their sound.

Itachi listened to the songs with his headphone plugged to his laptop

"I like it," he typed simply.

It was true. He was surprised by how good the music was, and the female singer had a very beautiful voice. Sure he would've gone to the show with Deidara no matter what, but now he knew he would actually enjoy it; always a plus.

"Really? Awesome! So you wanna come?" Deidara replied.

"Sure. But next week we're going to my favorite club."

"Deal."

Itachi smiled. Then he typed, "All right I'm gonna go to bed. School tomorrow. Gotta be a good student and all."

"You do that lol. Good night."

"You'll call me again tomorrow?"

"Ya sure."

"Good answer. Good night Dei."