-two weeks later-

Sasori was quite amazed by Deidara's progress. Upon giving the blond the secondhand dictionary, the Falk had practically thrown himself into studying English. The first task was of course, learning the English alphabet; no point in trying to study a language from a book you can't read, after all. He already recognized most of the letters and sounds combinations from films (Sasori blessed Hollywood on a near-daily basis for that) so learning them directly took less effort than what the Akasuna had been expecting. All in all, things were going rather well. Except…"Deidara?"

"…"

"Deidara, answer me."

"…"

"Brat, the ship's under attack and we're about to be taken hostage by carnivorous moon people."

"Uh-huh. That's nice, un."

Sasori could have smacked the blond. Ever since he'd learned to read, Deidara could not stop reading the blasted book Sasori had bought for him. At the moment, Deidara was lying on the foot of Sasori's bed, kicking his legs behind him whilst his eyes scanned the pages of 1001 Arabian Nights. Sometimes the puppeteer thought that life would have been better if he'd never located that blasted story book.

The Akasuna finally gave up on trying to draw the Falk's attention away from the literature and plucked the book out of Deidara's hands. "Hey!"

"Deidara, you have to have read this thing at least a dozen times," Sasori chided. He sat down near the blond, who appeared to be rather irate at having the book taken away from him. "Why do you insist on rereading it?"

"But danna, it's so beautiful!" Deidara exclaimed as his eyes lit up. "Stealing from robbers and making wishes from genies and-"

"All right, all right, I get it," Sasori laughed softly before handing the book back. "Just don't get too excited, or someone will hear you."

"Un," the blonde agreed as he snatched the book away from his danna. In only a matter of seconds, he was back to reading the story.

A few minutes passed in a comfortable silence, before Sasori cleared his throat to speak again. "You know, you never did tell me your story."

"Un?"

"Don't play dumb with me, Deidara. You know all those words. Now, why haven't you told me anything about your past?"

The blond stared at the elder male for a long while. Eventually though, his gaze traveled to the wrinkled bed sheets beneath him as his hands shut the book. "It's a bit of a long story."

"We have time." It was true; the warship they were on wasn't due to reach its destination for another two days, the repairs having only been completed earlier that week.

"…I lived in a city with my mom and dad. In an apartment, with a couple of other people. It was cramped but nice, really. I went to school and had a few friends, un. Everything was good."

"What changed?"

"Your Army bombed my town until there was nothing left but rubble, un." Sasori flinched but said nothing. Such were the casualties of war. "It wasn't too bad at first. Lots of us were cheering when the school had to be closed down, un. But then I came home from the park one day…and found out that my home wasn't there anymore, un."

"Did your parents…?"

"I never found out, un. A little while after that, some slave traders picked up me and several of my friends while we were out playing in the streets."

"I thought slavery was illegal on Verden!" Sasori exclaimed, startled by the statement.

Deidara looked up at Sasori and gave him a bitter smile. "War changed a lot of things on my planet, un. When most of the armed forces are out fighting halfway across the galaxy, it makes it much easier to sell people to one another."

"I see. Please, go on," Sasori requested as he moved closer to the blond.

"I went through a lot of owners at first. Some wanted raw muscle for labor, some wanted…other things. And when I wouldn't give in and do what they demanded from me, I was sold back to slave traders, un."

"Finally, when I was…" Deidara paused to count out loud, before going on, "fifteen, I was sold to a man named Orochimaru. It was strange. He never wanted anything from me. He left me alone in a room that I had all to myself, playing with whatever toys he bought for me and reading any scraps I could find."

"Doesn't sound too bad," Sasori mused.

"It was boring, un!" Deidara cried out, making Sasori start and look at the blond in a confused manner. "Every day, I'd wake up to breakfast already on the table in the room, play, have lunch brought in, get a visit from my master in the afternoon, eat dinner, play, and go to bed, un! I was suffocating, danna!"

"But, you've been in here for almost three weeks," Sasori stated with a raised brow. "Why aren't you bothered here?"

"Because I'm not always here, un."

"What?"

Deidara quickly held his book up to Sasori's face, before the redhead had a stroke. "With this, I can go to far away deserts and mysterious caves and quiet villages-"

"Ok, I get it, you have a very vivid imagination," Sasori muttered as he settled himself once again. Well that little incident probably took a good decade off of his life.

"Vivid?"

"It means bright or active. Now, go on."

"Oh. Um, I finally got so bored with my life and tried to escape. My first dozen attempts were unsuccessful, and Orochimaru got mad at me. Really, really mad at me…" the blond's voice trailed off as he began to tremble ever so slightly from the memories.

Without thinking about it, Sasori reached out to stroke the Falk's hair in an effort to soothe the male. That display of affection seemed to do the trick, since Deidara stopped trembling and smiled up at Sasori a moment later. "Thanks danna."

Sasori smiled ever so slightly at the younger male. For an annoying and childish alien, the Falk could be rather lovable at times. "The end of your story?"

"Huh? Oh yeah! One day we captured a human ship and had it docked in the hangar of my master's ship. It was my ticket out of there, and I was so desperate to get away that I couldn't resist, un! I had to risk it."

"So that's how you got into the ship," Sasori murmured softly.

"Un. I was hoping to make it back to Verden and start over, but this worked out even better!" Deidara smiled at the statement, but gradually it gave way to a sad frown. "At least I ended up better off than some of the others my master brought aboard his ship, un."

"Hm?"

"A lot of Falks were trafficked aboard Orochimaru's ship, un. I remember this one time, a whole crew were brought in from a human vessel. It was during one of the rare times I was allowed out of my room, un. You probably don't care about that, though-"

"No! Go on, Deidara. Really, I want to know about this."

"Well, there were about twenty of them. One of them worked for Orochimaru; he was the second-favorite slave, right after me, un. Kabuto, I think…yes, that sounds correct. Well, Kabuto had sold out this group of traitors that was working on your guys' side in the war, un. It made Orochimaru very happy, to say the least."

"Do tell."

"They were stored in the cells near my room. I used to sneak out at night to see what a traitor looked like, un. They were all really quiet and wouldn't look at me. Well, except for this one guy."

"Who?"

"Never found out his name. But he had really long black hair, and black eyes too. He looked at me the first night I came to them and laughed. Only it wasn't a big laugh. It was like a…a…"

"Snicker?"

"Yes! He snickered at me, un. And when I asked what was so funny, he said it was funny that there were prisoners on both sides of the cell bars."

"Strange," the Akasuna muttered.

"I thought so too. But then we began talking, and I started to like him, un. He'd always talk about humans; how creative they were, how amazing they could be, everything. For the first time since I was a child, I could listen to tales of humans and not feel angry or sick, un. It was great." Deidara's cheeks turned red, and he nervously whispered, "he even told me that he loved one human, un."

"Did he tell you the person's name?"

"No. Only that they met during an Army operation, and that he missed that person very much, un. He'd even gotten a necklace as a gift-"

Sasori and Deidara were both incredibly startled when the door to their room burst open. Frozen by their terror, they could only stare in fear at Kisame, who now stood in their doorway. "General-" Sasori was abruptly cut off by the shark entering the room and slamming the door behind him.

With silent determination, the shark crossed the room to stop in front of Deidara. "You."

"Y-Yes?"

"That Falk you spoke with; what was his name?"

"I-I don't know, un."

No sooner had the words left Deidara's mouth than Kisame grabbed him by his shirt collar and slammed him against the metal wall, making both the blond and redhead cry out. "General, what are you doing?"

"You be quiet!" Kisame barked. "You're in enough trouble as it stands!" Command given, the shark refocused his attention on the blond. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yes! He never mentioned any names, un!"

"…The necklace. Did he ever say anything about that?" When the Falk didn't answer, the shark tightened his grip. "Well?"

"It was made out of metal links…one of them…yeah, one had writing on it-"

"What did it say?"

"He told me…" Deidara screwed his eyes shut in concentration, hissing and clicking to himself as he racked his brain for that particular memory. Suddenly, the bright blue orbs snapped open, and you could practically see a light bulb go off over his head. "Angel…to my angel, un."

"…General?"

Kisame didn't make a sound. Rather, he loosed his grip and allowed Deidara to slide down onto the bed once more. Upon returning to the mattress, the Falk quickly scrambled into the safety of Sasori's arms. "Danna-"

"Sir, is there something you needed?" Sasori whispered softly, unable to look at either Kisame or Deidara as he cradled the blonde in his arms.

"I came here to ask you a few more questions about the crash," the General stated quietly. He slowly looked at Deidara from the corner of his eyes. "But I guess he answers my questions." The blonde flinched at the words and buried his face in Sasori's shoulder.

"How long were you listening?"

"Long enough." Kisame took a deep breath before going on. "You. The alien."

"Deidara, un," the blonde snapped, unburying his face enough to make sure his replies wouldn't be muffled.

"Deidara, then. In case you're wondering, the name of that guy was Itachi."

Sasori stared at the shark for a long moment, completely taken aback. "But…wait, did you-"

"Yeah, the necklace was a gift from me." The shark chuckled softly at the memory. "You should've seen the look on his face when I gave it to him. Like he was getting the whole world wrapped up in a box."

"So, that's what you meant by fast friends."

"Deidara," Kisame went on, "what happened to him?"

"I don't know, un."

"How can you not know? You two-"

"He was sold the next day, un! All of them were! And that was over two years ago. He could be anywhere now, un."

Sasori and Deidara both watched the shark to see his reaction. For a moment, there was nothing. And then, he seemed to double over as he held his head in his hands. "I should have known…Itachi was too devoted to the cause to sell us out. Should've known he wouldn't pull something like that."

BANG

The trio was startled out of their musings as a loud explosion echoed through the ship, which was now shaking violently beneath their feet. "What now?" Sasori growled.