Deidara swore to himself as the plane flew out of the hangar. Maybe he should have thought about his escape plan a bit more carefully before actually taking any action.

The blonde had realized that in order to escape, he'd need to leave on an enemy ship. Naturally, he studied any and every scrap of information he could find on piloting human aircraft. When the opportunity presented itself in the form of a hostage flyer, Deidara had leapt at the chance to run away, before he lost the only escape route ever presented to him. The one major detail that the male overlooked was that while he was within the spacecraft, he couldn't open the hangar door. This left Deidara with two options; either forfeit his plan now and return to his room before anyone noticed his absence, or use the ship's weapons to blast through the metal door and pray that he escaped before his master's men gave chase.

With a determined look on his face, the blonde had started up the ship and hurriedly blasted a hole in the door.

He was only in space for a few moments before another hangar opened, and the soldiers within gave chase. The blonde had shot off, praying he could evade the men. Deidara knew they wouldn't dare shoot him down; his master would make their lives short and painful for destroying his favorite plaything like that. No, they'd simply attempt to fly close enough to the blonde to harpoon his ship's wings, and then tow Deidara back to the ship. The blonde had no intention of letting them succeed in their task.

He was startled out of his thoughts by a loud beeping coming from his radar. "Hmm?"

Deidara looked first to the blinking green screen, and then to the void of space before him. He could barely make out the forms of a few human flyers ahead of him.

An idea quickly occurred to Deidara; one that, if it worked, would almost guarantee his freedom. "Where is it, un," he muttered as his blue eyes scanned the interior of the stolen vehicle. He gave a small "A-ha!" as he finally located the object he'd been searching for in the ship. With a hurried movement, his fingers pressed the button.

-mm-

Sasori's frown intensified as he heard a fast, constant beeping coming in through his communicator. The foreign ship was sending out a distress signal. That meant that the pilot was either injured or incapable of fighting his pursuers, possibly both. "Hidan-"

"Yeah, I hear it too," the man answered. "Sasori, Tobi and me'll take care of these bastards; you get that poor son of bitch back to the ship, ok?"

The redhead frowned at being assigned to escort, but realized that arguing with veteran pilots on his first day might not be the best course of action he could take. "Roger," he answered before moving away from the soon-to-be combat zone. He needed to circle around and fly beside the newcomer, thus ensuring both the pilot's safety and an easy way to lead them back to the ship.

Tragically the fighting broke out before Sasori could get close to the endangered pilot. The redhead saw laser blasts in his peripheral vision fire at his friends, but did his best to ignore it. "Attention," he said into the communicator. "Newcomer, please follow me to safety." When no answer came, Sasori was forced to conclude that either the pilot was choosing to ignore him (which was highly unlikely, since the unidentified person had sent out a distress signal) or did not possess a functioning communicator.

Before the Akasuna could attempt to figure out which answer was correct, a stray laser blast caught the new ship's wing. The Akasuna watched in horror as the damaged ship swerved, and began a rapid descent towards the nearby green planet. "Hidan!"

"I saw!"

"What should I do?"

"Go after him! Tobi and I can cover our own asses up here."

"Hidan's right," Tobi affirmed. "Now be a good boy and go help them!"

Sasori muttered a soft reply to his friends before shooting off after the distressed ship. With any luck, the pilot would be able to land, and Sasori could simply provide the person with a lift back to the warship.

-mm-

It took the Akasuna several moments more to breach the planets atmosphere, and then a little longer to actually arrive at the crash sight.

The world he was descending upon was covered in thick, lush jungles, indicating that a possible breathable atmosphere existed. His computer confirmed the suspicion moments later when a robotic voice calmly informed him that an oxygen mask would not be required on the world's surface, nor would he need any special protective clothing to venture out into the tropical planet.

It took Sasori quite a bit of time to find an area relatively clear enough to safely land his ship, and after that he had quite a trek back to the area where the other ship had smashed into the planet's surface. The redhead counted the pilot as lucky to have even survived such a crash into the trees; that is, if the mysterious flyer was even still alive.

Daydreaming like that always makes time go faster, and before the redhead knew it, he was in front of the wreckage. Once he was able to tears his eyes away from the twisted, burning lumps of metal that had once been a ship, he caught sight of an injured blonde lying on the ground. As best he could figure, the male had survived the crash, crawled out of the spacecraft, and then collapsed to the ground. Nervous about the person's condition, Sasori hurried over.

Closer inspection revealed that the male was rather effeminate; most people might have suspected him of being a female. Long blonde hair cascaded down his back, covering both his face and ears. Eyes decorated with the barest amount of eyeliner were closed, and the person appeared to be sleeping. With graceful ease, Sasori hefted the person off the ground and began walking towards his ship. "Let's get you home."

-mm-

Fate seemed opposed to the idea of Sasori and the stranger returning to Kisame and the rest of the soldiers, though. When he arrived back at the ship, the Akasuna was promptly informed by his onboard computer that the ship's battery was almost completely drained, and already unnecessary functions like the communicator and radar had been cut off. Thus, the redhead would either have to plug it into a power source and recharge the energy source, or open the solar panels and allow the ship to refuel itself via sunlight. Sadly, neither option was viable, as this planet was clearly primitive, and the sun was already setting. Meaning that Sasori and the blonde would have to spend the night in the wilderness and pray for good weather in the morning. "Damnit!"

Several hours later the redhead had a roaring fire going, the blonde resting on one side of the flames with himself on the other. Sasori had decided to wait and see if the blonde woke up; if not, he would be admitted to the hospital under the pretense of having a coma.

Groans from the male broke Sasori's mind back to reality. So, the pilot was finally going to wake up.

Deidara slowly blinked his eyes open, trying to recall what had happened. He remembered crashing into the ground, and then trying to walk away from the wreckage, and then…nothing.

Slowly, the blonde pushed himself up, tucking a few stray locks of hair behind his ears as he took in his surroundings. "Where am I, un?"He heard a soft gasp, and quickly jerked his head to face the source of the noise.

Sasori had been completely shocked to see a pair of blue, hawkish eyes open when the person woke at long last. Even more startling were the pointed ears that blonde hair no longer concealed. Without realizing it, the redhead had aided a Falkian. How sick was that?

Deidara, meanwhile, was panicking. He'd been found by a human; that could end worse than being returned to his master. The worst his owner could do was beat him, but that always ended with the blonde being given something as an apology. Humans might kill him on the spot. And this redhead was armed.

As soon as Sasori reached for his gun, the blonde threw up his arms in defense and curled up into himself. "Don't shoot, un!"

The Akasuna froze, as did the blonde. For a few, painfully long seconds, they stared at each other. Not moving his hand from his weapon, Sasori began to talk. "You speak English?"

"A bit, un."

Warily, Sasori removed his hand from his weapon, and the blonde relaxed his body ever so slightly. "Where'd you learn?"

"I had a friend who lived among humans, un. And I used to watch TV…"

Sasori nodded. That explained it. Once upon a time, human programs had been all the rage on Verden, as were their major languages. You could still find a fair number of Falkians that spoke fluent French or Spanish; English was a bit harder to come by. "Your name?"

"Deidara, un. Yours?"

"…"

"Well?"

"Sasori."

The blonde nodded his head at the answer. "Sasori danna, un."

"No, it's Sasori."

Deidara fervently shook his head. "Sasori danna, un."

The redhead was beginning to get annoyed; maybe he should shoot the blonde after all. "Why am I danna?"

"Because danna saved me and spared me, un," Deidara answered as he cautiously approached the Akasuna. Sasori recoiled ever so slightly from the advance, but made no move towards his weapon.

Deidara's world was beginning to spin; he realized that it probably wasn't a good idea to move around so much after crashing a spaceship into the side of a planet, but refused to halt his movements towards the redhead.

Soon, they were separated by mere inches. Deidara leaned forward on all fours, face dangerously close to Sasori's. The human remained seated in his cross-legged position, waiting to see what the blonde would do.

"You are my danna," Deidara stated firmly. "You're the reason I'm still here, un." The redhead saw the alien's eyes droop ever so slightly as his body swayed. "So take responsibility for your actions, Sasori danna, un." The blonde suddenly collapsed, his head landing in the soldier's lap.

Sasori stared down at the bomber in sheer disbelief, before looking up at the starry sky. Exactly what had he gotten himself into?