Hello, everyone! Next chapter is up and for your viewing pleasure! A special Thank You to two accounts, 'self-piercing' and 'ReEn-Kk', for your continuous reviews of each new chapter that I post! I love getting reviews, my loves; seriously, I do. Your opinions, thoughts, and praises make me feel so happy as a writer. And to top of this slightly fluffy opening, as a writer, I enjoy followers and favorites of this story, but they don't mean everything to me. If you want to follow my story, please do! Cause if you're reading the story, I'm pretty sure you'd like to know when I update? But honestly, this story is to just be a pleasure read to those who like Sasori and Deidara. These two are like the babies I must protect, and this story is just something I want to share with the world. And if you want to be apart of it, I'm welcoming you with open arms. I promise I don't bite~ So, with much gratitude and excitement, I present Chapter 9! And as always, Rate and Review, please! ^_^ See you all soon

"So what do you think, un?" Deidara asked, looking over at Hidan. The silver-haired guy was munching away on his deli sandwich, seeming so into it that the blonde thought he hadn't heard him.

"I don't know, man, you fucking sure about this?"

Obviously he had heard him.

"I mean," Hidan set his sandwich down, "do you really even fucking know Sakura?"

"A bit, but isn't that what dates are for, un? To get to know people?"

"I mean, I guess," his friend ruffled the back of his head with his hand, looking clueless, "I'm just probably not the best person to ask considering I'm in a relationship. I mean, I haven't had to worry about that type of shit in a while."

"That's great, Hidan, but that helps me none, un," Deidara was getting irritated. He was on lunch break and decided to ask Hidan to grab a quick bite with him at the local diner near HQ. Right after sitting down, he promptly told him about his proposed date idea with Sakura.

"I'm sorry, bro. Can't help or change it," the silver-haired guy shrugged his shoulders. "Have you talked to Sasori about it?"

"Yeah, but he wasn't much help either, un. Just basically agreed to whatever I was coming up with," the blonde explained, gazing down at his half-eaten triple decker.

He didn't have much of an appetite today.

"Well he isn't very social, so I highly doubt he's fucked a girl in the last couple of weeks let alone asked one on a date," Hidan exclaimed, taking a swig of his root beer.

Thinking of that mental image, Deidara shivered unpleasantly. "TMI, Hidan, un."

"It's the fucking truth!" he yelled back, attracting stares from people, most of them parents who had kids. The blonde leaned forward. "Mind keeping a cap on that vulgar mouth of yours, un?"

"I'm not one to keeping my mouth fucking shut when people engage in conversation with me," Hidan slightly glared his pale red eyes. "You ask for my opinion, you'll get whatever the fuck you get."

"Fine, un," annoyed, Deidara sat back in his seat, taking a small sip of his drink.

He wasn't that thirsty today, either.

"When do you want to have this date with Sakura?" his friend asked, going back to his calm demeanor.

"Sasori liked it, so I was thinking this Saturday, un," the blonde was expecting his friend to agree that that was the perfect day.

He was completely wrong.

Instead, what he got was a wide-eyed stare and gaping mouth.

"What did I say, un?"

"This may be a really stupid question, but do you know what this Saturday is?"

"Um…no, un."

"Right, that was a stupid fucking question," Hidan mumbled. "If I was Sasori, I would be fucking pissed as hell."

"Why, un? What's this Saturday?"

"Asshole, it's fucking Sasori's birthday, dumbass."

It was like a freight train hit him; hard. His stomach dropped all the way to the floor and his throat suddenly became dry.

How could he forget Sasori's birthday?

Racking his brain for some sort of remembrance, memories started playing like an old movie through his head.

It had been the first weekend in the apartment and they were both lounging in the living room, Sasori reading a book, Deidara watching a movie on the flat screen.

"When's your birthday?" the redhead had randomly asked, not looking up from his book. The blonde had looked over, slightly confused. "Why ask me such a random question, un?"

"Just a question, brat. When's your birthday?"

"May 5th, un. Just turned 24," He had flipped through the channels, landing on a random cooking show. "When's yours, un?"

"November 8th."

"That's not far away, un!"

"Don't make such a big deal about it; it's just a birthday."

"Just a birthday, un?! Birthdays aren't just days," Deidara had exclaimed, his attention going away from the T.V. "They're days meant to celebrate you being alive, un."

"Or to celebrate another year closer to death," Sasori had retorted, gazing up to smirk at the other guy's shocked expression, amber eyes playful.

"You're so morbid, un," the blonde had said, going back to watching a show.

"Shit, I can't believe I forgot that, un," Deidara commented, shoving a hand through his thick blonde tresses. "Why didn't he remind me when I talked to him this morning?"

"Hell if I know, Deidara," Hidan remarked, leaning back in his chair. "How about you talk to him?"

Deidara wanted to answer back, but another memory suddenly surfaced, going back to this morning.

When he had accidentally called his roommate 'Danna'.

"I can't do that, Hidan, I freaking embarrassed myself in front of him this morning, un," he said, his hands hiding his face, which had grown a few shades pinker. The blush grew deeper as he heard his best friend's familiar, maniacal laugh. "What the hell you fucking talking about?!"

"I accidentally called him 'Danna', un," the blonde said into his palms, clenching his teeth as he heard Hidan's laughter grow in volume. It lasted for a few minutes and then he finally calmed down. Still keeping his face in his hands, he mumbled, "You done laughing at me yet?"

"I'm sorry, Deidara, but that's fucking hilarious," his friend said. "Isn't that what you call your uncle?"

"Yes, and it just accidentally slipped out when I was talking to him, un," Deidara finally removed his hands from his face, placing them on the table. "I felt so embarrassed even though he let it slide."

"And that's what you should do," Hidan advised, training his gaze over at the shorter male. "Now here's the more important question: which is more important? A date with Sakura or celebrating Sasori's birthday?"

"Why the hell do I have to choose, un?"

"It's more of a question as to who means more to you, bro. Sasori's just too fucking nice to ya to give you an ultimatum."

Deidara thought for a long, hard moment. On one hand, he really wanted to go on a date with Sakura. The pink-haired beauty had caught his eye every single time he has walked into the building, and just recently, she had finally started calling him by his first name.

Talking with Ino had solidified his resolve even further, since his cousin so happily approved of them being together.

On the other hand, even though he had completely forgotten, he really wanted to celebrate Sasori's birthday, since they had been roommate's for almost a month now, and he wanted to make up for his negligence.

What the hell was he supposed to do?

Suddenly, an idea popped into his head, and he smiled wickedly at the silver-haired guy who was busy looking at the menu for another round of food.

"I have an idea, un."

Sasori's fingers moved rapidly over the keyboard, clicking away a new line of code in seconds and then going to the next. He was almost done with the 12th level, which was good progress, but the entire program had at least 40 levels worth of code, so the entire atmosphere was drenched in tension as everyone worked their butts off to finish the program by the given deadline.

Though he was concentrating as hard as he could, Sasori's thoughts were off somewhere else.

Or, more accurately, on someone else.

That someone being a blonde asshole who had forgotten his roommate's birthday.

His jaw clenched unnaturally tight.

Yes, he knew Deidara didn't like him in the slightest; the guy was fucking straight, for cripes sake!

However, that didn't stop the dark green wave of jealousy from washing over the redhead's entire demeanor. He honestly had no right to be upset, since his roommate hadn't a clue as to how he felt about him.

He had absolutely no right.

Yet, he still found himself becoming livid at the idea of that pink-haired whore throwing herself all over Deidara.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he turned his amber gaze over to the clock, not enjoying that the big hand hadn't moved much since the last time he had looked.

It was only 3:32 and he was stuck there at the office until 8:00.

"Mr. Akasuna," his boss suddenly appeared at the entrance to his cubicle, catching the redhead off guard, "we don't pay you to sit around and look at clocks all day. We have a deadline to meet and if we don't give the company what they want by that date, it will be your ass on the line. Understood?"

"Understood, sir," was all Sasori said as he turned his attention back to the computer screen, finishing yet another line of code.

What made Sakura so damn interesting, anyways?

Yeah, he hadn't seen her yet, and quite possibly it was due to the fact that he was gay, but he highly doubted the girl was all that and a bag of chips.

Still…Deidara, for some unknown, stupid reason found her fascinating enough to want to go on a date with her.

And even though the brat wanted to do so on his birthday, because he cared about him, he gave his blessing, despite his less logical self wanting to do so otherwise.

"Seems to me you're troubled with something, Sasori-senpai," came the annoying, yet familiar voice of his colleague, Tobi. The 20 year old was new to the company and, becoming a near expert in his five years working there, Sasori had been tasked with the ordeal of mentoring the youngster. The guy had become so attached to the redhead, he had started calling him by 'Sasori-senpai' and it had stuck.

"I'm not in the mood to be interrogated right now, Tobi," Sasori growled, keeping his eyes trained ahead, despite his peripheral picking out the younger male leaning over the wall of his own cubicle to stare down at him. "Aw, come on, senpai! What's going on?"

"Tobi, I swear to God, leave me the fuck alone right now, okay?" the redhead finally turned his amber eyes over to the dark brown ones staring back, gaze serious. "I'm on the verge of snapping and I honestly don't want to take it out on anyone."

Tobi didn't say anything for a few seconds, but he suddenly gave Sasori a serene smile. "You like someone don't you?"

Flustered, Sasori immediately whipped his head back to the screen, blushing slightly at his colleague's tiny chuckle. "Who is it, senpai?"

"First of all, it's none of your business," the redhead grumbled, "and second of all, how the hell could you tell?"

"Well normally, you would have to just yelled at me," the younger male exclaimed, still leaning over his cubicle wall. "But instead, you gave me warning even after snapping at me. Someone's changing you, Sasori-senpai, and that someone can only be someone you care about."

"I don't need advice in the love-department, alright? Just let it be, Tobi," Sasori remarked, annoyance edging his voice. "I'm trying to work, alright?"

"Fine, but heed my warning: if that person isn't told soon about your feelings, you're going to end up a lot more hurt than you had originally planned."

"And why is that?"

"I may haven't had a girlfriend in a while, but it's obvious to see that whoever this person is, you're in love with them," Tobi explained, smile widening at Sasori's expression.

The redhead just closed his eyes, counted to 10, and went back to work, ignoring Tobi even though the other continued talking to him.

In the back of his mind, he wondered how the brat was doing at his own office.

It was 9:30 by the time Sasori made it back to the apartment. Since it was only a Monday, the streets had been eerily quiet and desolate, so instead of walking like he normally did, he had hailed a cab and arrived back safely.

He unlocked the door and entered the foyer, kicking off his shoes and continuing on into the living room, the smell of clay hitting his nostrils.

What the-?

"Good evening, Sasori, un!" Deidara piped from his spot over by the sink. In his hands was a huge pile of wet clay. "Another late night?"

"Yeah, it's getting pretty bad," the redhead said, dropping his laptop bag on the couch and joining his roommate over by the sink. "What the hell are you making at this time of hour?"

"I haven't sculpted in a while and inspiration suddenly hit me today, so I'm sculpting, un," the blonde explained, moving the clay over to a covered area of the island.

"Sculpting what exactly?"

"I don't really know yet, un," Deidara studied the clay for a few seconds, hands unmoving. "I knew I wanted to sculpt, but what it is I want to sculpt, I actually don't know."

"Well, good luck with that," Sasori, though slightly shorter, lightly patted the blonde on the head, noting how soft the locks were. "I'm heading off to bed."

He was heading over to the stairs when he heard Deidara say, "I asked Sakura to go on a date with me, un."

"Congratulations," the redhead made his voice sound cheery, despite the ever present anger slowly slithering under his skin. "When is it?"

"This Saturday, un," behind him, the blonde had started the process of molding the clay in his hands.

He clenched his hands into fists, thankful the light from the kitchen couldn't reach his spot from the stairs. He felt the anger slowly dissipating to something worse.

Hurt. Something in him finally decided that being angry wasn't what he needed to be, and instead, whatever was in him decided that he needed to be hurt. Digging his nails into his palms, he felt tears begin to form in the corner of his eyes.

Yet…despite the aching in his heart, he still managed to smile and say in a happy voice, "I hope you have fun. Try the Cirque Bleu on the corner of 27th and 5th. They have the best fillet mignon."

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind, un," Deidara even sounded excited. Without another word, Sasori trudged up the stairs and into his room, quietly closing the door and moving to lower himself gently on the king-sized, circular bed.

Instead of screaming like he had done before, he did something much worse.

He cried.