"Danna."
"…"
"Danna!"
"Mmm…"
"Sasori danna, wake up, un!"
Slowly, the redhead opened his eyes to see a smiling Deidara hovering mere centimeters away from his face. "Morning danna!"
"Brat, why are you up so early?"
"I'm hungry, un!"
Sasori resisted the urge to smack the far too cheery blonde, instead taking a deep breath before speaking again. "Might I ask why you didn't simply get up to get the food yourself?"
"Because we're on a human warship and I'm a Falk, un," was the blonde's immediate reply.
Oh, right. He had a Falkian refugee in his ro-
Deidara barely had time to move out of the way as Sasori shot bolt upright in bed. The Akasuna clutched his head in his hands and let out a loud groan. That was right, he'd taken an enemy alien back to his damaged warship. And on his first day on the job to boot!
Groaning again, he flopped back down onto his bed, his hands covering his face. Well this was perfect. Now what was he supposed to do? "Danna?"
The puppeteer removed his fingers from his eyes to look at the blonde. Deidara was currently looming over him again, this time wearing a concerned look on his face. "Are you all right Sasori danna, un?"
Sasori took a moment to gather himself before replying. "Aside from the fact that I just recalled I brought an enemy alien on board yesterday, I could be tried for treason now, and I have no idea what to do with said alien until we get to Earth, then yes, Deidara, I'm absolutely perfect."
"So…can I have breakfast now?"
Despite his annoyance, the redhead couldn't help but let out a brief laugh. Great. He'd taken in a Falk with a one-track mind. "Fine. Just give me a minute to get ready." The blonde nodded and patiently waited for Sasori to finish his preparations.
Once he was dressed, the Akasuna took the liberty of setting the alien down on the bed to give him a talk. "Now Deidara, I'm going to get you food. When I come back, I'll say, 'food time'. Until then, I want you to hide under my bed and wait. And no matter what, don't open the door for anyone, under any circumstances. All right?" Deidara gave a quick affirmative, before scurrying under the afore-mentioned mattress. Chuckling at the sight, Sasori left the room and locked the door behind him. The lights in the main hall were on, and he could now hear the din of the engines running. Hmm, they must have pulled into the station while he and Deidara were sleeping.
A short jaunt to the cafeteria confirmed his suspicions when he ran into Hidan and Tobi. The Akasuna hung around to talk with the men for a bit; Deidara wasn't going to starve if he had to wait a few more minutes, right? "So, how long will we be here?" the redhead asked as he seated himself at his friends' table. The spacious cafeteria wasn't too crowded now; most of the other soldiers must have been sleeping or off the ship.
"Hell if I know," the Jashinist answered. "They needed to order so replacement parts, so it could be a while."
"Tobi doesn't mind," the Uchiha pilot stated. Sasori watched in mild amazement as the Uchiha picked up a spoonful of food (on this occasion, scrambled eggs) slipped it under the bottom of his mask, and then have the spoon return moments later completely clean. So, the kid didn't even take off his mask at meals. "If Sasori is done staring at me, he should finish his food," Tobi suddenly reprimanded.
Immediately the Akasuna began nibbling at a piece of buttered toast on his tray. "Sorry. I just thought you'd at least take off your mask at meals."
"That could jeopardize Tobi's luck!"
When Sasori looked to Hidan for an explanation, the man just shook his head and said, "Don't ask."
"Tobi, why are you so happy about our delay?" Sasori queried.
"There's a small colony built around the station, Sasori! Tobi can go look in the shops and talk with all the locals."
"I'd advise against that," Hidan cut in. "The bastards around here are about as anti-war as you can get without being Jashin-damned hippies. If they take one look at your damned military uniform, you're a dead man."
Sasori nodded at his friend's warning and rose. "Thanks for the tip, Hidan. And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm heading back to my room."
"Why not stay here and eat with us?" Hidan said while looking at the redhead's mostly full plate.
Mind reeling for an explanation, Sasori finally came up with, "I'm not feeling too good at the moment. If my stomach gets better, I'll have this around to eat." Seeing that his friends weren't going to protest, the Akasuna at long last left the cafeteria.
The trip back to his room was short and uneventful, just as the puppeteer had hoped it would be. When he arrived at his chambers, Sasori was quick to first lock the door and then set the food down on the bed. Now for the blonde. "Food time."
The Akasuna was immediately assaulted by the Falk, who saw fit to quickly glomp the redhead and squeeze him tightly in an embrace. "Danna! I thought you were gone forever, un!"
"I was away for fifteen minutes," Sasori gasped out. He made a mental note that while Deidara was frail-looking, the blonde was probably physically stronger than any male on the ship. Must have something to do with Falkian body structures…
"Oh." Deidara blinked in surprise, having clearly thought the time interval was longer than that, before looking to the tray of food that now sat on Sasori's bed. "Breakfast!"
In less than thirty seconds the entire plate of food had been devoured by the blonde. Deidara grinned up at his stunned danna and shrugged. "What? I was hungry."
"I can see that," Sasori muttered as he stared at the empty plates. "Not even a crumb big enough for a mouse…"
"Sasori danna, what will we do today?"
The redhead paused to think. He could always explore the ship, but that sounded so dull. And he'd have to leave Deidara all alone for hours upon hours. What to do then? "Dei, I'm going to the settlement around this station. You will stay here."
"But that's so boring, un!" Deidara flopped down on the bed and began hissing and clicking in what Sasori could only assume was Falkian speak.
Instantly the redhead leapt forward and covered the blonde's mouth with his hand. "Deidara, hush!" he commanded.
The blonde stopped his grumbling long enough to look up at his danna. "Un?"
"Someone's going to hear you and take you away from me!"
The blonde's eyes widened slightly at Sasori's statement. Of course; how could he have been so foolish? "I'm sorry," he mumbled from beneath the redhead's grip.
"It's all right," the Akasuna reassured him. "Just be more careful in the future."
"Right. I'll just be more careful in the future, un," the blonde repeated.
"Do you have any idea what I said?"
"Un?"
-mm-
Ten minutes later and Sasori was off the ship and walking around the interior of Konoha Station in street clothes. He was curious to see what this settlement was like, and at the very least needed a Falkian/English dictionary.
The people seemed to have built shacks and houses for themselves wherever room could be found. Honestly, Sasori wasn't all that surprised. When you lived in a climate controlled space station, you didn't have a lot of real estate options at hand.
As he was making his way down a crowded street, the redhead eventually stumbled upon a small bookstore wedged between a Laundromat and a grocery store. The shop window had smudges on the outside, probably left over from small children pressing their faces to the glass and looking inside the dark store. The shop's interior was comprised of floor to ceiling bookshelves along the walls with a narrow, carpeted walkway between the shelves. Florescent lights overhead provided the deserted bookstore with its only illumination. Besides Sasori, the only other person in this rather dismal shop was an elderly woman sitting behind the counter near the store's entrance.
Sasori gave the shopkeeper a quick nod in her direction before venturing further into the store. Most of the books were old hardbacks with faded titles; here and there, he could pick out a dog-eared paperback that had seen far better days. Rather depressing, if you asked him.
By some miracle of fate, though, he was able to find a weathered dictionary in the rear of the store, surrounded by ragged magazines that boasted anti-Falk headlines and articles.
As he was retrieving the book from its long-standing place on the bookshelf, another work of literature with a bright red cover and faded gold lettering caught his attention. Cradling the dictionary in his arm, Sasori pulled out the book out of its place and turned it over to look at the title. The puppeteer had found an old copy of 1001 Arabian Nights.
At first, Sasori made to put the storybook back in its place. As it was about to be shelved, though, he recalled Deidara's complaint of boredom, and then looked to the dictionary in his other arm. If the blonde was going to blend in with humans on earth, he'd need to know how to read and write in at least one human language. Perhaps this could be a teaching tool. The blonde seemed like the type that would like a storybook anyway.
With these thoughts in mind, Sasori paid for the books at the front of the store and then exited the premises. Time to return to the ship and find a certain Falk.
-mm-
Sasori never made it to his room, though. As soon as he stepped onto the ship, the intercom crackled to life as a low monotone said, "Sasori Akasuna, please report to General Hoshigaki's office. Again, report to General Hoshigaki's office."
The redhead felt his heart race as he walked down the hallway in a silent panic. What now?