Chapter 16

That evening, the Uchiha brothers found themselves sitting at a table inside a nice gay night club downtown, accompanied by their sexy blonde boyfriends.

"I can't believe they let you in with your father's card," Itachi chuckled addressed Naruto.

The sixteen year old shrugged, and took a sip of beer. Mister Casual.

Sasuke snorted, "He was so nervous that they probably let him in out of pity."

"No!" Naruto protested, "I wasn't nervous!"

Deidara shook his head slightly, "I just can't believe your father gave you his card in the first place."

"That's because he's the awesomest father ever," Naruto smiled.

Deidara smiled back, "Well I'm glad you guys are here. This is like a double date."

"So you guys are finally gonna be official then?" Sasuke inquired.

"Yeah," Itachi answered, taking Deidara's hand under the table.

Sasuke smiled teasingly, "Your first boyfriend 'tachi, was about time."

Itachi was unfazed. "I was waiting for the right person."

"Aww," Deidara teased.

They bought some more drinks and continued talking, and then the four of them went dancing.

"I'm so hot," Deidara said at some point.

"Indeed you are," Itachi whispered in his ear, amused.

"No…" the blonde chuckled, "I mean, with this shirt…"

Itachi started unbuttoning it for him.

"What are you doing?"

"You have something underneath," Itachi caressed the hem of the tank top with his hand, "so what's the problem?"

Deidara blushed slightly, "I don't want to lose this shirt…"

Itachi smiled. It was the dark blue shirt he'd bought for him a couple weeks ago. "All right. Well, wear it open like this at least."

He finished unbuttoning it, and he also rolled up the sleeves for him. Then he slid his hands around Deidara's thin waist and pulled him closer to kiss him.

As they danced and continued kissing like this, Itachi soon realized something was wrong. Deidara couldn't keep up, and he was breathing heavily.

"Are you okay?" Itachi said, pulling away to give him some air.

He frowned slightly, "I'm sorry, I think I'm gonna go outside for a minute… You stay with your brother and Naruto and have fun. I'll be right back."

Itachi frowned as he watched him walk away. He waited a few minutes, but Deidara wasn't coming back. He glanced at Naruto and Sasuke. They were having so much fun together that they wouldn't even notice if he was gone. So he went outside.

He frowned when he saw that a guy was talking to Deidara. He was leaning closer and the blonde was clearly uncomfortable. He heard what they were saying as he walked towards them quickly.

"…just relax…"

"I don't wanna fucking relax, just leave me alone…"

Itachi grabbed the guy's arm and yanked him away roughly.

"What's your problem?" He asked angrily.

"You," Itachi said coldly, "he's with me so back off."

He muttered something Itachi didn't get, and then he finally left them alone. When Itachi turned to look at Deidara, the latter threw himself in his arms.

"You're always saving me," he whispered in his ear. "Thanks…"

"You don't have to thank me…"

Itachi traced circles on his back soothingly. He heard that Deidara's breathing was still rather difficult.

"Do you wanna go…?"

"Yeah…" Deidara said sadly, "I guess I ruined the evening."

"No, of course not."

"What about your brother and Naruto?"

"They'll be fine…"

Itachi pondered going back inside to tell them they were leaving, but he chose to just text them instead. He didn't want to leave Deidara alone. Then they found a taxi nearby and hopped in. As Itachi told the driver their address, Deidara leaned back against his seat and closed his eyes.

"Are you okay?"

Deidara nodded slightly. Itachi frowned, wondering why he was suffering from asthma now.

"We didn't dance that much…"

"It happens sometimes… it's a pain in the ass."

They stayed silent for the rest of the drive home. Itachi paid and they walked towards the door. Careful not to wake up Itachi's parents they made their way to their bedroom. Deidara used his inhaler while Itachi opened the window.

"See, it's a good thing you have this, right?" Itachi said when he noticed Deidara's breathing already seemed better.

"Oh shut up," Deidara said half-teasing.

"Come here," Itachi slid his arms around Deidara's thin waist, and then he proceeded to take off his shirt completely.

Itachi trailed his fingers across his arms. He then traced the tattoo on his left shoulder blade.

"You have a sun burn," he eventually said as he caressed his shoulders.

The skin was a little red there, and also, he now noticed, in his face. But it wasn't so bad.

Deidara simply shrugged. He pressed himself closer and buried his face in Itachi's neck.

"I'm a little tired," he said.

They pulled away and stripped to their boxers, before crawling in the bed. Itachi caressed Deidara's hair as he watched the perfect, adorable face slowly relax into sleep.

"I love you," he whispered.

Deidara's beautiful blue eyes opened, revealing that he hadn't been completely asleep yet. Itachi's words had just come out, but he sure didn't regret them. They were true, and came from deep within him.

The blonde smiled a beautiful, sincere smile, "I love you too."

They kissed softly, and closed their eyes again. Itachi kissed Deidara's hair, and a small smile lingered on his lips even as he drifted into sleep.

His sleep was interrupted two hours later though. Deidara was agitated, and he seemed in pain. But he was asleep, it was only a dream. Itachi tried to wake him up.

"No," Deidara was moaning desperately, "don't… no…" he was crawling away from Itachi in the large bed.

Itachi took his arm, but it was a mistake. Deidara struggled in fear.

"Wake up," Itachi said, leaning closer. "It's just me…"

Deidara's eyes finally opened and he whispered, "Itachi."

"You okay?" The raven asked, worried.

"Yeah," he said, but a tear lingered at the corner of his eye.

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

Deidara nodded, but no sound came out of his lips. Itachi pulled him close, and the blonde placed his arm around Itachi's waist and rested his head in the crook of his shoulder.

"I'm just glad you're with me," he finally said, "it's been a while since I've had a nightmare like this."

"Dei I've been thinking…" Itachi said slowly, caressing his hair.

"What?" the other whispered.

"These guys need to pay for what they did to you."

Deidara tensed, and pulled away. "No. I mean, what's the point? It's been like, years…"

"Do you remember their names?" Itachi asked, lifting himself up on his shoulders.

He hesitated, "Well…"

"Do you?" Itachi insisted.

"Yeah but… I don't want to see them ever again."

"I understand," the raven said softly, "but I can't bear the thought that they hurt you and got away with it…"

"It's in the past…"

"But it still hurts you."

Deidara flinched.

Itachi sighed, "I want to find them and I don't know... break their fucking legs or something."

It was a harsh way to bring up the subject, but this had been in his mind for a while now. Deidara's nightmare had just forced it out.

To his surprise, Deidara made a little smile. "It does sound tempting when you put it like that…"

Itachi made a brief smile, but then seriously he added, "Let me do this for you. I wish I could have protected you, but like you said, it's in the past, and I didn't know you back then. So let me do this for you now."

Deidara took a deep breath, and went to get his notebook. He ripped off a blank page and picked up his pen.

"What are you doing?" Itachi asked.

He didn't answer. Instead he wrote down a few names. He gave the piece of paper to Itachi.

"Before I change my mind," he said, "But hey, promise me something."

Itachi looked up, "What?"

"Don't put yourself in danger, all right? Not ever."

There was so much worry in these beautiful blue eyes. Itachi got up and they held each other close.

…

In the morning Deidara was sick, and Itachi didn't know what to do to help him. He wanted to comfort him, but the blonde had locked himself in the bathroom. The others were already on the beach, and they would only come back for dinner.

He went to knock on the door. "Are you okay?"

"I'm awesome."

Itachi sighed, "Just let me come in."

"No…"

He sighed again, and walked away, returning to the bed and to his book. But he definitely wasn't able to concentrate with Deidara throwing up and coughing in there…

He got up again, determined this time.

"Let me come in," he insisted.

"No it's gross…"

"I don't care!"

Deidara finally unlocked the door. He was still in his boxers, and he had put on one of Itachi's t-shirts, which was too big for him. His messy hair was tied up and his face pale. After he opened the door he leaned onto the closest wall and crawled to the floor. Itachi bit his lip.

"Baby…" he whispered as he sat down next to him, "tell me what I can do to help?"

"Don't worry about me, you should go have fun with your family…"

"No I'm staying."

He wrapped his arm around Deidara's frail shoulders and pulled him closer softly. The blonde, too weak to resist, leaned against him. He was clutching his stomach with his hand.

"Was it something you ate or…?"

"I don't know, it just does that sometimes, when I get a virus or whatever. It's fucking annoying…" he winced in pain and Itachi frowned.

"You don't have to stay in here. Let's go back to the bedroom…"

Deidara nodded, and Itachi helped him up. Once the younger male was lying down comfortably on the bed, Itachi climbed next to him and caressed his hair, brushing aside his long bangs. He noticed his skin was abnormally hot.

"You have a fever," he said.

"No shit."

"You don't have to be mean to me, you know?" Itachi said as he pulled away.

Deidara winced in pain again as he clutched his stomach, and he looked at him with sad blue eyes.

"I'm sorry Itachi, it's just… I'd rather you had fun with your family than being stuck here with me."

"I want to stay with you, get that into your stupid head."

"Now you're the one being mean," Deidara teased.

Itachi rolled his eyes. "Hey do you want some pain killers or something?"

"No I'll just throw up again…" he glanced away.

"All right…"

After a moment of silence Deidara said, "Well, since you want to stay here and you have nothing to do… I guess you could…"

"What?" Itachi asked softly.

"Read… one of my stupid stories… or something."

"You're serious?"

"Yeah," he made a little smile as he turned to look at him. "I keep some of them on my USB plug. It's somewhere in my bag…"

Itachi had already jumped off the bed to take a look. He had always been curious as to what Deidara's stories were like. His laptop was already opened, so when he found the plug he looked through the folders right away.

"Read the one called Afterdeath. It's just a stupid temporary title, but… Anyway, I think it's my best one so far."

"Will you stop saying that it's stupid?"

Itachi placed his pillow against the wall and leaned on it as he sat on the bed. Deidara was curled up on his side with an arm folded under his head, looking at him. So he started reading.

At first the blonde was looking at his reactions, but soon he fell asleep. Itachi kept on reading. He couldn't help but smile; this story was similar to their relationship, in a way. Sure the context was post-apocalyptic and there were vampires and other fucked up creatures, but still…

Deidara had not finished it, but it was still the length of a small novel. And it wasn't bad at all. He couldn't wait for Deidara to wake up, so they could talk about it. On the meantime, he went to get him some water.

Then he sat on the bed again and killed some time by checking his emails. A few minutes later Deidara woke up with a pained moan.

Itachi looked at him, concerned, "Still feeling sick?"

Deidara nodded and sat up, hugging his knees.

"At least drink some water," Itachi handed him the glass.

The blond only took a small sip, but it was better than nothing.

"So…" Itachi started with a little smile, "why am I some vampire girl in your story?"

Some color returned to Deidara's face in the form of a blush.

"What?" Itachi mocked, "You seriously thought I wouldn't notice? She's tall and slender with raven hair, black eyes and pale skin. And her name is Tashia. Come on."

"It's just…" Deidara muttered, "I thought, if I were to ever publish it, well, stories of a girl and a guy are more popular, so…"

"Why'd you make me the girl? You should be the girl."

"Shut up…"

"I'm just messing with you Dei the story's really awesome and bad ass. You should really continue it. I hope they end up together."

Deidara rolled his eyes, still blushing slightly, "Oh shut up."

Itachi smiled and leaned closer, "I'm serious though. I liked it."

"I don't believe you. You're saying that just to cheer me up 'cause I'm sick."

"God you're so annoying sometimes!" Itachi exclaimed. But contradicting his words he kissed Deidara's cheek, and then his forehead tenderly.

"You'll catch my virus," the blond protested.

"I never get sick," Itachi shrugged.

"You're such a lucky bastard."

"Didn't we have this conversation before?"

"…Probably."

The raven chuckled into his cheek. Then he said, "Drink some more water, or you'll be dehydrated."

Deidara hesitated, "What if I just throw up again?"

"I said, drink."

"Fine!"

…

On Christmas night, even though the warm weather and palm trees outside didn't exactly put Deidara in the spirit well, it was nice. He was still feeling a bit sick, but he'd taken a shower and put on jeans and t-shirt and now he was sitting on the couch and leaning on Itachi's shoulder.

The whole family had eaten a nice dinner and now Mikoto had insisted that they looked up old pictures on Itachi's laptop. The latter was rather embarrassed because his mother kept telling everyone stories about his childhood.

"…he was such a sore loser that whenever we taught him a new game he hid in his bedroom and practiced so hard, just to make sure no one could ever beat him at it," she was saying at some point and Itachi rolled his eyes and glanced away.

Deidara chuckled and pressed himself closer to the raven.

"Well I could never beat him at anything," Sasuke said somewhat bitterly.

He was sitting at the other end of the couch with Naruto on his lap, and he glanced at Itachi.

"You know, you could've let me win once in a while just to make me happy I mean I was just a little kid and you always had to rub it in my face that you were so much better at everything."

"You poor baby," Naruto exclaimed teasingly, making everyone laugh.

"Shut up you it's not funny," Sasuke pushed the blond off his lap.

Naruto fell to the floor but he was still laughing.

"What about you Deidara," Minato asked, "how were you as a kid?"

He tensed slightly but then he felt Itachi's hold tightened around him and he felt safe. He didn't have to go into details here, after all.

"I was a loner," he shrugged slightly, "I spent lots of time outside just, you know, going on little adventures on my own I guess."

"Well," Mikoto smiled, "you were a kid and taking care of yourself already, that's quite something. You must be really strong."

Itachi kissed his hair, "He is."

Deidara's face heated up slightly, not really enjoying being the center of attention all of a sudden. But then the conversations drifted and he felt safe again. He felt like as long as he was in Itachi's arms he would feel safe.

…

The rest of the vacations went by the same way it had started. It felt like something out of a beautiful dream to Deidara. He was spending all of his time with Itachi. They were surfing sometimes – which he still sucked at, but at least they were having fun – and other times simply swimming or hanging out at the beach.

They also went for walks downtown together, shopping or just walking in the streets close to each other and exchanging smiles. They also spent a lot of time at the house, more specifically in the bedroom… or the shower.

Deidara absolutely loved these heated sessions with Itachi because he wasn't nervous anymore. He wasn't scared to be intimate with him. They were pleasuring each other in ways that Deidara had never thought possible. They were discovering each other's bodies, every little spot that brought particular sensations.

But this one night, the night just before packing up and going to the airport, Itachi said something Deidara hadn't expected.

They were in the bed in each other's arms kissing passionately and moaning and whispering sweet words to one another. The house was completely silent so they had to be quiet. They both breathed sharply when their erections came in contact. Itachi pulled him even closer and kissed his neck so intensely that it would surely leave marks, but Deidara didn't care. It felt amazing, as always…

"Dei…" Itachi whispered in his ear.

"Yeah?"

The raven pulled away so that he could look into his eyes.

"I… I think you should…"

He frowned slightly, and caressed Itachi's cheek, "What is it? You think I should what?"

"Fuck me," he whispered.

Blue eyes widened and he tried to pull away but Itachi held him close.

"No…"

"Why not?" Itachi asked softly.

"Because I know what you're trying to do. You want me to see that it's not a big deal, and that you're enjoying it or whatever…"

"No, you don't get it…"

Deidara went on, "And then you want me to feel guilty that I'm not letting you do the same…"

"No, stop it!" Itachi exclaimed, raising his voice a little.

The blonde went quiet, ready to listen to his explanation. Deep down he knew that Itachi would never want him to feel guilty.

"I just want to give myself to you, like I've never given myself to anyone before. That's it."

"You've never…?"

"No," Itachi chuckled lightly, "I'm definitely a top."

"I guess I should've known. I just hate thinking about all those other guys you fucked…"

"It was before meeting you," he said softly.

"I know that."

They both sighed and pulled away from each other a little. Deidara looked down but Itachi cupped his chin to lift his face softly.

"So you don't want to?"

"No…"

"Why? Tell me the real reason."

"Because… I do feel guilty."

Itachi gave another light chuckle and he wrapped his arms around Deidara's slender frame to pull him close again.

"Why?"

"You know why," the blonde whispered, burying his face in the crook of Itachi's neck.

"So you want to wait then?"

"Yeah…"

Itachi sighed but he kissed his hair and caressed his back with his hands softly. Deidara knew that he didn't want to show his disappointment.

Without really thinking he added, "I want you to fuck me first."

Now it was Itachi's turn to pull away and to look at him with dark eyes wide in shock.

"Not tonight," Deidara quickly added, "but… soon."

Itachi's beautiful lips curled up into a wicked smile, and Deidara couldn't help but laugh.

"You pervert…"

Itachi hugged him again, laughing softly.

"I love you."

"I love you too," Deidara said back, still smiling. Yeah, soon…