-Itachi-

I woke up just as Sasuke was coming down the stairs. He was already ready for school and I remembered I should probably call Deidara and let him know I decided to enroll Skye in Sasuke's high school. I'd called them and set everything up last night.

"Sasuke, can you go wake up Skye?"

I asked as I dialed Deidara's cell, he nodded before heading back up the stairs. I sat down at the island and Deidara picked up on the third ring.

"How is she? Is everything okay, yeah?"

He asked before I could even say anything and I couldn't help but shake my head at him. Only when it came to Skye could Deidara act like a mother hen, but we were all like that when it came to her.

"She's fine. She had a nightmare about something last night, but once she settled back down she slept soundly."

I said and heard him sigh in relief on the other end.

"But the reason I called was to tell you I enrolled her in Sasuke's high school."

I said and held the phone away from my ear at the stream of profanities coming from the other end.

"Deidara, I know, but she needs to be around other people. She can't stay by herself, you know what could happen if we left her alone."

I said once he stopped cussing me out and heard him sigh again.

"He'll look after her right? You both will, yeah?"

He asked and I smiled slightly as I leaned back in my chair.

"You know we will Deidara. Sasuke will look after her in school, and you, me, Pein, Konan, and Sasori will look after her any other time."

I said and got silence from his end for a while before he finally spoke again.

"What do you think happened to her Itachi, yeah?"

He asked and that made me freeze. Konan had told Pein and I what she thought had happened, but none of us knew for sure. The only person who knew was Skye, and she wasn't telling.

"I don't know Deidara, but she's here now and that's all that matters."

I said and heard him mutter something I couldn't catch. I was about to ask him what he'd said when I heard a loud thump from upstairs.

"Deidara, I'm gonna have to go. It would seem that Skye is still as hard to get out of bed as ever."

I said and heard him, and what sounded like Sasori, laugh from the other end before I hung up.

I headed up the stairs and walked to the guest room that was now Skye's. I pushed open the door to see my brother being pinned down by a rather unhappy looking Skye.

"You still haven't learned the proper way to wake her up have you Sasuke?"

I asked from the doorway as I leaned against the doorjam and watched the show. It was actually rather amusing.

"Don't just stand there enjoying this, help me!"

Sasuke called out to me as Skye started to throttle him and I decided to intervene.

"Take it easy Skye."

I said as I wrapped and arm around her waist and pulled her up off my brother before any permanent damage could be done.

"Don't wake me up like that! He woke me up like that too! Don't...just don't..."

She screamed, but by the end of it her voice trailed off and she stopped trying to get out of my arms.

I looked at her a little concerned about what all she had been put through, but knew not to ask.

"Sasuke go downstairs and finish getting ready."

I told him and he did as I said without question. I set Skye down on the bed.

"He didn't mean any harm Skye, he was just trying to wake you up because you have school."

I informed her as I walked over to the closet and pulled out some clothes for her.

"Go ahead and take a shower, then we can take care of your hair before you have to go."

I said and she scowled at me about mentioning her hair before grabbing the clothes and disappearing into the bathroom. I sighed once the door was shut behind her and sagged against the wall. It was harder dealing with her now than it was before. At least before the only thing that would set her off was taking the last of her favorite soft drink, calling her friends names, or someone singing the lyrics to a song wrong. Now it seemed that almost everything brought up a bad memory for her.

Just what has happened to you in the three years apart Skye?

I wondered as I heard the water in the bathroom cut on.

-Skye-

When I felt Sasuke shaking my shoulder to try and wake me up I was reminded of when Shinta would do that then beat me for not waking up fast enough. I had thought it was him again and attacked before he could attack me. Once Itachi had pulled me off Sasuke and I realized what I'd done I felt bad and tried to explain without telling them.

"Dammit!"

I shouted before punching the tiled wall of the shower. I hissed in pain when I realized I'd just split one of my knuckles open and the hot water was hitting the openly bleeding wound.

"Well damn."

I mumbled before pulling my hand to my chest and holding it there as the water washed over it. I had already finished my shower, so I stepped out and got dressed before wrapping my hand. At least it wasn't the one I wrote with, but I knew it wouldn't escape Itachi's notice.

I walked out of the bathroom with a pair of scissors and a comb and handed them to Itachi before sitting down on the edge of the bed with my back to him. I heard him walk up behind me and felt him comb through my hair first before starting to cut it and even out the shredded mess that had been created by Shinta in his drunken rage.

"Do I want to know what happened to your hand just now?"

He asked and I pulled the sleeve of the long sleeve shirt Itachi had given me over my wrist to try and hide it.

"Still punching walls in aggrivation I see."

He said teasingly and I frowned at the fact he was picking on me, but to be honest, I'd kinda missed it.

"Tachi?"

I asked after some time and heard him hum in response.

"What would you do, if someone you thought loved you turned out to be the one who caused you the most pain?"

I asked and felt his hands still in my hair for a second before continuing what they were doing.

"I suppose you could try and deal with it, see if it gets better."

He said and I frowned at the fact I had tried that and it didn't do shit for me.

"But that rarely works out, you probably should get away from them."

He said and I looked down at my hands. I had tried to run away from Shinta a couple of times, but each time he'd followed me and said he was sorry and that he loved me, and like a fool, I believed him and always went back with him.

"Done."

Itachi said, bringing me out of my daze and I turned to see him step back from me and I got to my feet and walked back into the bathroom to see what he'd done. I stared at the girl in the mirror in complete awe. Itachi had cut my hair so that my bangs hung down infront of my eyes, but could still be pushed back when I wanted. It was long in the front, down to my shoulders, but short in the back.

"You like?"

I heard Itachi ask from behind me and turned to see him leaning in the doorway.

"No."

I said as I walked over towards him. I saw him frown in confusion before I threw myself at him and wrapped my arms around him.

"I love it!"

I shouted and heard him laugh at my statement before hugging me back.

"Alright, finish getting ready. We can't have you being late on your first day."

He said as he pulled away and walked out of the room.

I walked back into the bedroom and cleaned up the hair on the ground and threw it away before looking at myself in the mirror. The red, long sleeve Akatsuki shirt made me smile, despite it being a little baggy on me and the black skinny jeans hung low off my hips, but the black and white checkered studded belt helped to keep it put. I pulled on my black motorcycle boots before heading down the stairs.

"Tachi, I don't have a bookbag."

I said as I walked into the kitchen. I saw Sasuke sitting at the island eating what looked like cereal.

"It's not like you'll actually use it."

Sasuke said and I glared at him, but he was right. I'd carry most of my stuff anyways, but I still wanted it.

"Here, you've got notebooks and a sketchpad in there."

Itachi said as he handed me a messanger bag with his band's logo on it.

"Thanks."

I said with a smile as I pulled the strap over my head and let it fall against my hip. Sasuke stood up just as I was about to ask Itachi how we'd get to school.

"Come on Skye."

He said and grabbed my wrist, pulling me along after him, not giving me a chance to respond.

Sasuke pulled me out of the house and down the street.

"I can walk on my own you know."

I said and he simply let go of my wrist and we walked in silence. I saw the marks I'd left around his neck from this morning and felt bad.

"Sorry about trying to choke you."

I said and saw him turn to look at me before looking ahead of us again.

"It's okay."

He said and I smiled at him as I walked beside him. But as we got closer to the highschool I couldn't help but start to feel like the world was shrinking and closing in on me.

"It's okay Skye, I know we aren't as close as you and Itachi, but I consider you family and I'll be there for you."

He said as we walked through the gates surrounding the school and I couldn't help but smile at him. I guess Sasuke wasn't as bad as I had thought he was.

"Thanks Sasuke."

I said before following him further into the schoolyard.

-Deidara-

I sat on my couch between Sasori and Pein while Konan was in the kitchen making something to eat. We were all waiting on Itachi to get here so we could start practice, but I just wanted to know how Skye took the knowledge of her having to go to school.

"Hey guys, sorry I'm late but I had to take care of some last minute things with the school."

Itachi said as he walked in the door.

"Was she okay? Was she mad, did she seem nervous? Tell me, yeah!"

I said, getting right infront of him.

"Dei, dude, calm down."

Sasori siad and I glared at him before turning back to look at Itachi.

"Dei, she was fine. Sasuke will look out for her and she was in one piece when she left this morning. Relax and let's play some music."

He said and I wanted to argue, but stopped myself. He was right, I was acting worse than my sister did whenever Skye and I would come home after dealing with some of the idiots at her middle school. It was so weird to realize Skye had grown up, but she had. She had only been fifteen when she left and now she was eighteen and in high school.

"Deidara!"

Pein shouted at me and I flinched at his tone before going over and joining them with our instruments. I was worrying too much, Itachi was right. I should just relax and play some music. Everything would be okay...right?